I love singing

Faith loves to have conversations. With anyone. If someone starts talking to her, more often than not, she would start to respond with gurgles and coos. Most conversations would invariably have her smiling at her recipient.

One of her favourite activity is also singing. She loves them either to soothe her or as playtime. And her mommy loves singing to her in the hope of catching her giggle, which she is slowly starting to do.

Her favourite song now is "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes". When we sing that to her, we'll get her to do the actions too and that pleases her no end. These days, when you start to spread her 2 arms apart and say the words "Head and Shoulders?", Faith would start smiling.

Here's the video of us doing the song with her. We were trying to get the best video short of her with a full-frontal face, but somehow, she got fascinated with the camera and was more engrossed looking at the camera instead.

Leaving it off or on?

Faith is more than 3 months old and its high time that her mittens come off so that she could learn to grab at things. So far, all she's got to show are scratches on the face as she's prone to running her hands all over her face, head and behind the ears. Twice, when her mittens came off at night while she was sleeping, she scratched her face within minutes.

So, back the mittens went on her hand. And now, I've only taken the mittens out for short periods while I'm watching her so that she won't be able to do too much damage to her own face. A few friends have told me to buff her nails, which I tried. But either I'm not buffing it right or her nails are growing really fast, they are still sharp.

At this juncture, I'm rather apprehensive about the next step forward. Should I take out her mittens and let her learn the hard way not to scratch herself or do I continue with the mittens for a while longer? As it is, I noticed that she's not really keen to grab hold of toys or rattles, except for adult fingers. So, if I continue to keep the mittens on, she might not learn to be able to use her hands to grab at things, which she should be around the age of 3-4 months. Hmmm...

The first lesson from my baby

On Sunday morning, I was pre-occupied with my stuff after I've finished nursing Faith. In order that she can play on her own, I've decided to strap her into the rocker so that I could continue with my chore. In my haste, I hurriedly belted her into the safety harness and snapped it on, not realising that her flesh was caught in the buckle. Faith's face suddenly scrunched into a cry. It must have been extremely painful becos for some 5 seconds, she uttered no cries but you could see her face contorted in excruciating pain before she started wailing. Checking her arms, I saw an angry red welt on the inside of her forearm!

Of course, she cried and howled in pain and I was thoroughly beside myself. A few minutes later, she managed to calm down but occassionally still sob and cry. When she finally stopped crying, I put her down so that I can examine the welt in closer detail.

At that point, my little baby started smiling and cooing at me. It was at that moment that I felt a huge lump at the back of my throat and my eyes started welling with tears. Here I was feeling utterly remorseful and ashamed of myself for being so careless with Faith and she was smiling and talking to me as if to assure me she was ok. Throughout that day and up until now, I felt terrible for being the one that inflicted so much pain on my poor baby.

That day has reinforce the lesson in me that I can never be too careful with Faith. But more significantly, my baby has taught me another more important lesson... the meaning of humbleness. I am humbled by the unconditional love and trust that my baby has in me. So soon after I had cause her much hurt, she could still smile and coo to me. I certainly wasn't so willing to forgive Louis once when he accidentally hit my little pinkie while opening the wardrobe!

While I have always known that motherhood brings with it a huge responsibility, that unconditional love and trust that she has in me weighs even more heavily on me now. But it is one that I shall do my utmost best to earn it.

Le Weekend

This weekend was filled with lots of activity. On Fri, we checked into Sheraton Hotel for a 2-night stay FOC as part of the Starwood group promotion. In part, the stay serves to be a test trial of our upcoming Beijing trip in packing for Faith. Indeed... we packed a lot of stuff for baby and most of what we packed had extras for standby e.g. clothes, diapers, hankerchiefs, cotton wools/balls etc etc. Between the 3 of us, we had a 29-inch luggage and a slightly smaller one for all of Faith's stuff. Anyways, the long and short of it was that Faith enjoyed being in an air-conditioned room the whole day. In fact, we all slept in till nearly 11 am the next morning.


The 2 As were of course excited when they came to the hotel in the late afternoon. Apart from playing with Faith, they were also over the moon about swimming at the hotel pool. I think kids generally love staying in hotels. The same night, we went out to celebrate FIL's birthday with dinner at the Prima's Revolving restaurant near to Harbour Front.

The highlight of the weekend was Saturday's lunch. Louis and I had lunch at Li Bai's, the chinese restaurant at Sheraton. We ordered mainly dim sums with the usuals like prawn dumplings, chicken feet and pork ribs. What's unique was their turnip cake, stir-fried with XO sauce and bean sprouts. Louis loved the pork ribs as the meat was relatively lean and yet soft. The same could be said for the chicken feet, which has melt in your mouth texture and a nice gelatine feel to the skin. Personally, I loved their soup best. It was double-boiled soup of chicken, mushroom and white fungus. But it was simple and yet tasty, and you know that its been cooked with fresh and abundant ingredients to draw out the natural flavours. Overall, Louis and I thought that the food at Li Bai's was very tasty and refine. In fact, I would deem it a tad better than our favourite restaurant at Orchard Hotel, Hua Ting.

On Saturday night, Louis and I decided impromptu to check out of the hotel earlier since he would be heading for his weekly badminton in the morning. As Faith is still too young to take a dip in the pool, the both of us would only be sleeping the morning away in the room before checking out. We thought it might be better to check out earlier and sleep in the comforts of our own home.

Head up high

At about 3 months, Faith's neck is getting a little stronger and she's been trying to hold her head up when we carry her upright. While we have also tried to give her some tummy time up until now, she's mostly only able to prop her head up while resting her chin on her little fists.

On Fri, she's finally able to lift up her head and look up at me proudly before flopping back again to rest it on her hands. Hahaha... maybe its the weight of her head that's making it difficult for her to hold it up for long.

However, its great that she's finally able to do so, although we still have to support her neck when carrying her cos its still not strong enough. I hope that somewhere between her 3rd and 4th month, she would be able to hold her neck all on her own so that she can gaze out more at the world around her.

The first mother-daughter outing

It maybe seem unbelievable but up until now, I've never gone out with Faith alone. That's discounting any lone trips that I've made with her walking back and forth from between my MIL's flat and ours.

Thus, my daughter and I set another little milestone in our lives on Monday when we went "gallivanting" in Suntec City all by ourselves, while my mom took a well-deserved one week break from coming over to help me look after Faith.

Before having a kid, I've never had to worry over where I should and can go. But the thought of travelling in a cab to and back from the destination carrying a kid and a stroller in tow, added with the thought that I need to go somewhere with a nursing room so that I can feed her with some amount of privacy, I've decided to bring her to Suntec City. While there, I could have lunch at my favourite Vietnamese noodle place, as well as to parade my daughter in front of some office colleagues who have yet to see her.

Most of my colleagues "ooh and ahh" over her, as most people generally would over babies. The current count for whom Faith most resembles goes to my dear hubby, with only a mere handful saying that Faith looks like her mom.

Nonetheless, I think Faith enjoyed herself quite a bit, being the centre of attention, having many "aunties" talked to her and of course, being pushed around in her stroller. She was mostly well-behaved and happy except for times when she was hungry or when stationary in her stroller. Time flies when you're having fun. Before we knew it, it was 5 pm and nearly time for Louis to come pick us up to head home.

I felt that this trip out was a boost to my own confidence, knowing that I was able to handle her by myself. What perked me up was that I felt great seeing and talking to my colleagues/friends. You see... the thing about being a SAHM is that I'm mostly at home. So, going out and trying to resume some semblance of my life prior to motherhood was definitely a great mood enhancer -- its evil but I finally felt a bit like those rich tai-tais out having their hi-tea and enjoying themselves while the majority of folks were slaving away at work (BUT before any of you get your high horses up, let me declare that I'm not rich, neither was I having hi-tea ;)). Plus, I get to eat my favourite Pho Bo at Pho House. For that, I need to apologise and thank CC for being accommodating. I simply luuurve eating Pho Bo, and 90% of the time when I'm there in Suntec, that's what I want to eat and I'm sure some of my friends are sick of eating there with me all the time :) Hee hee...

Oh well... I'm really looking forward to my next trip out alone with Faith. Although when we do that, the both of us might be in another country, following Louis on his next assignment which would be coming up pretty soon.

Another stroller makes two

I used to wonder and felt that it was extravagant for a kid to have more than 1 stroller. When we bought our Mclaren stroller for Faith, we conceded that it was heavier and you need both hands to be able to open and close it. However, the plus point was that it was sturdy, easy to maneuver and came along with accessories for winter. All of these were considerations for us as we do not know which country Louis' assignments will bring us and in which season.

It had worked well for us so far. Except that I can't go out with Faith alone with a stroller. So now I understood why some parents have more than 1 stroller. With the consideration that this time, I need a stroller that I can open and close with one hand and that it has to be as light as possible, Louis and I and got ourselves our 2nd stroller. We settled on Combi as it was light and cheap (at S$188).

Faith seems to like her stroller for a few reasons. Firstly, the seat is more ventilated and comfortable for our tropical weather. Thus, Faith's back doesn't get too warm when she seats in there for long periods. Secondly, the stroller comes with a guardrail in the front. Hence, our little baby enjoys kicking her legs and occasionally, will prop her little feet on the guardrail.

So on Sunday, we rolled Faith in her new stroller as we went for dinner at the Metropole Herbal Restaurant at Clark Quay. It had some of the familiar dishes that we like from the old Imperial Herbal Restaurant at Metropole Hotel. However, we knew that the old Metropole Hotel restaurant had shifted to Vivo City, so, I'm uncertain if this Clark Quay outlet was spun off from old staff nor its relationship with the outlet at Vivo City. Nonetheless, I much prefer this restaurant at Clark Quay as the ambient was more soothing.

After dinner, we had a short stroll around and as usual, more photo-taking of our little babe. The ACES family were all fascinated with Faith and her weekly developments, especially the 2 little As. SIL was recounting to me about how Anthea and Anders would pretend to be parents to Faith, calling each other darlings and asking if they have changed her diapers on a daily basis :) Unfortunately, they also tend to squabble with each other, trying to get the best spot to play and talk to her at the dinner table too. I guess that's part of growing up. I only hope that when Faith grows older and can play with her cousins, she would not scream and yell when she doesn't get her way, which she's prone to at this stage :)

Thank goodness its only a growth spurt

I'm so glad and relieved that Faith's hunger and unusual number of night feeding sessions for the last 3-4 days were due to her growth spurt. By Sunday, Faith has returned to her normal feeding routine and she only wakes up twice a night, each time for about 10 mins just to feed before going back to dreamland.

Hence, the panda that was on the loose in the neighbour for the last few days has now returned back to its cave to hibernate. Till the next growth spurt :)

I am so tired...

... from 2 nights of feeding marathon. I think - and hope - that Faith is just going through the usual growth spurt at 12 weeks. For the last 2 nights, my dear daughter has been waking up 3 times a night to drink, at about 2 hourly intervals. Last night, one of her feeding session lasted 1 hour. You would think that after drinking for so long, it would be able to last her through till the morning. But no... my dear daughter started squirming and kicking her sheets till it covers her face some 2-hour later for her next feeding. I was so tempted to drag the blanket over my head, ignore her squirmings and go back to sleep.

I'm praying that its a growth spurt that she's going through since such events only last only 2-3 days. She went through a feeding-spree during her 3rd week growth spurt. In the 6th week growth spurt, there wasn't any deviation from her normal feeding patterns. Her paedi told me that it is possible for infants to go through growth spurts without exhibiting any signs of increase appetite/hunger.

Here's keeping my fingers cross that by tomorrow, Faith would revert to her normal feeding pattern. Otherwise, this weekend, you would see a panda on the loose ;)

Aunty's "babies"

Aunty Xiuzhen was our confinement lady for the 1-month after my delivery. We got to know her through word-of-mouth (WOM) from my boss and she came highly recommended and also someone that was very pro breastfeeding. A pro breastfeeding confinement lady was rare, and of course we were told to quickly contact her more than 6 months ahead of our delivery date :)

Thus, Aunty Xiuzhen has been making her rounds taking care of the mothers and babies of a few common friends. On Saturday, we visited LS, who has recently delivered her 2nd kid -- a daughter. Aunty Xiuzhen has taken care of both LS' and EL's 2 kids when they were delivered. Lo and behold, it was a gathering of Aunty Xiuzhen's "babies" at LS' place.

And so it was, we've spent an enjoyable Saturday afternoon, chit-chatting with Aunty Xiuzhen, reminiscing about our respective trials of motherhood post-delivery and "oohing-aahing" over how much all our babies have grown. Here are some pictures of Aunty, the mummies and all the recent baby girls delivered. The 2 toddlers... well... they were in the living room playing and as with boys, I don't think they were very interested in picture taking :)

Faith is growing :)

It might be just me, but I think that Faith has growth spurts whenever I go overseas. Just came back again from Bangkok and I could tell that Faith was chubbier, her hair was fuller and I think she might even have grown a little taller. All in 3 days you might say? Well, I'd like to think she misses her dad and to make up for it, goes on drinking binges. Imagine what it'd be like when I go for reservist for one week starting Monday!

As Eve says, the most rewarding thing is still to see her smile. I was in the airport lounge when I accessed Eve's previous blog to see Faith's pictures and it picked me up after a long day in the office. It was already pretty late in the evening when I got back, so I didn't get to talk to her much this time. Tomorrow morning though we'd get to talk all we want! :)

Green Tea Creme Brulee

There are 2 green tea desserts that I love; green tea creme brulee and green tea tiramisu. Surprisingly, I had both while overseas, although not in Japan. I tasted my first green tea creme brulee at the Saffron restaurant of Banyan Tree Bintan. The green tea tiramisu was served at Satsumi restaurant at Wardour Street in London.

What I liked about the green tea tiramisu, which makes it very different from the other green tea tiramisu that I've tried is that the mascarpone portion of the dessert was flavoured with green tea while the sponge finger layer still retained the usual coffee liquer taste. It was yummy! The online recipes that I've found for green tea tiramisu were different in that they substitute the coffee liquer soaked sponge fingers for green tea instead.

I've decided to try to recreate these 2 desserts at home, starting with the green tea creme brulee becos it was the easiest. Here's a peek at the finished product fresh out from the oven. Its yet to be caramelised though.

The verdict??

Hmmm... there was a hint of green tea, but a very faint one at that. Perhaps its becos I was using green tea powder and did not use enough of it to bring out the flavor or I should have let it steep longer. Alternatively, I could use green tea leaves, which might give greater flavor. All the same, it still taste good.

My smiley baby

I love my baby most in the mornings when she wakes up all full of smiles. It doesn't take much to make her smile... in fact, she would stretch like a cat and give you that full megawatt smile that makes you feel that nothing else in the world can compare to this.

Its my favourite time in the day and the best time to snap some great pictures. Say "Cheese"!

Baby keep your head up

Yes, for a while, Faith has been trying to lift her neck whenever we hold her in an upright position, with her chin over our shoulders. Today, while I was trying to burb her after her feeding, I noticed that she could hold her head up for about 5-10 seconds.

Of course, she couldn't really hold it for long cos she will flop about. Nonetheless, I thought it was a little achievement for my little one. I wonder when would be the day that she would be able to have control over her neck and can take in sights whenever we hold her up. Curiously, I wonder if its a progressive development i.e. increasing timeframe that she can hold her head, or would it just happen? Nonetheless, I think I shall give her more time on the tummy so that she can use the opportunity to exercise her neck.

Bon chance, ma petite fille!

Is the grass greener on the other side?

I think it is true. Back when I was holding a job, I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mum (SAHM) and I thought that there could be so much things that I could do with my kid when I become one.

Today, I went back into office to pack my desk in preparation for the start of my 2-year leave of absence from work in Jul. Maybe its becos I haven't been experiencing the stress of work, but I was actually looking forward to going back and meeting with friends and colleagues. I felt guilty for feeling this, but then, it was good to be interacting with people. Although I have always wanted to be a SAHM, these days, I am ocassionally gripped with the thought that it would be liberating to earn my own money and not be consumed by guilt whenever I want to splurge on myself and know that I'm spending my hubby's hard earned money.

Perhaps I would embrace and enjoy my role as a SAHM as Faith gets older and there are more things that we could do together. I've always fantasised that I would be cooking different types of food and cuisines that are nutrious, going out or playing with her and yet, still have the time to pursue my other love i.e. cooking and baking. It may sound rather simplistic. Just as I had always loved my deceased but dearly missed grandma's cooking, I hope there comes a day in the not too near future where Faith would tell me that "Mommy, could you cook me my favourite XXX dish".

In today's context, this may not be the yardstick for being a good mum. However, in the Asia of my grandma's and mother's time where love may not be expressed so openly, it is most often communicated through the food you cook for your family.