Lo Hei

Its the time of the year for Lo Hei again with the approach of the Chinese New Year CNY). As early as the 2nd week of January, many food outlets have already been laying out pre-packed, ready-to-go Yusheng.

I remembered when I was younger and the adults would get all excited about the tossing of Yusheng or Lo Hei during the CNY period. Certainly, I wasn't as enthusiastic about eating it then as I am now.

These days, Lo Hei would invariably remind me of my deceased grandma. Yusheng was one of her favourite dishes. My side of the family isn't big on CNY traditions and dinners. But when my grandma was alive, I would remember eating dinner on the eve of CNY with her and how she would never fail to have us Lo Hei together, even though it was just her, my aunt and me :)

If given a choice, I would eat Yusheng everyday that its available during the CNY period. I think Louis must fear this period becos I would make him eat it with me for days in a row :) Still, I'm happy to proclaim that he initiated to order the first Yusheng for the year.

Last Fri, he was keen to go out for dinner but I reminded him that it was the last episode of Jumong, the Korean epic drama that we were all hooked on. Hence, we decided to order for home delivery by Sakae Sushi.

As far as Yusheng goes, this certainly wasn't the best. In fact, we thought it was only passable. We opted to drop out the salmon slices in it so that my mom can lo hei with us. And Faith was very excited too. She kept wanting to grab at the food and was creating a din when we restrained her. She was pacified when my mom held a pair of chopstick together with her and pretended to toss it.

We had our 2nd Yusheng on Sunday at the Thai Village Sharksfin Restaurant at Leisure Park. The countdown for now is 2 Yushengs even before CNY :)

Sam Leong's Cooking Class

Many would know that one of my great love in life would be cooking and nearly every and any thing related to it. To that end, I've bought, collected and accumulated so many things from cookbooks to kitchen equipments, cutlery's, nick-knacks, spices, condiments and blah blah blah. Each time, I've justified to myself, and my dear hubby, that many items that I bought or would want to acquire would serve a specific and special need towards the fulfillment of this great love of mine.

My kitchen cupboards are filled nearly to the brim, my bookshelves loaded with cookbooks and magazines and so is my entire fridge even though I've bought the biggest capacity fridge available in the market. I equate going for extravagant meals at times as an eye-opener and education of the taste buds towards the achievement of greater culinary aspirations for myself. And of course, as with any cooks, one of my greatest passion is to attend cooking classes, especially if said classes are taught by luminary or celebrity chefs. More specifically, Sam Leong, Director of Kitchens for the entire Tung Lok Group, was going to be teaching some CNY classes at Shermay's Cooking School. Of course I had to sign up!

These days, signing up for cooking classes require a little more logistics coordination than the mere reservation of a cooking class, even if some of these classes may have limited vacancies on account of the popularity of either the cuisine or chef. Yes, the main coordination would revolve around to help take care of Faith :)

Usually, Faith goes off to my MIL's place on weekend afternoons, while Louis and I would go about our errands. However, this Sat, my MIL had something on, so it was just going to be Faith and her daddy. But, I was worried if Louis would be able to cope on his own with her on account that he had to pay attention to a few things on hand too. He's got to coax her to take her afternoon nap, cook her porridge and pack them into a thermos for dinner, warm and feed her her afternoon milk, as well as change her diapers. Alright, alright. So, I'm an overly worried mom/wife. Still... :)

We discussed and agreed to radio for help the night before from my BIL and SIL for reinforcement. Thankfully, they were all too eager to pitch in, so my SIL came by around 3-ish pm to help out.

That logistical detail settled, I happily trotted off for my class early, in anticipation that the seats would fill up as many tend to turn up early. It was the first cooking class that I'm attending ever since I was pregnant and the smell of all food and cooking turned me off. Couldn't help being a little excited and eager to go for the class.

Lesson was supposed to start at 3.30 pm and by the time I reached the venue at 3.10 pm, the seats were already two-thirds filled. I saw Sam togged out most professionally in his chef outfit, along with not 1 or 2 assistants. No sirree! We're talking about celebrity and renowned chef, who came along with 3 assistants, all geared out in chef togs too. And they were set out with a portable mini kitchen in the school balcony, ready to whip out more than 40 sets of the 4 dishes that Sam Leong was teaching as food tasting for all the attendees. As Shermay herself puts it, its equivalent to a private dinning experience for all of us. Yahoo and double Yum!!

The four dishes that we were supposed to learn that day were:

1. Crispy Shrimp Ball with Cheese Filling and Coated with Bread Crumbs
2. Baked Cod Marinated with Soy Sauce and Sauteed Scrambled Egg White
3. Braised Abalone, Conpoy with Home-Made Spinach Tofu
4. Warm Home-Made Almond Cream with Superior Birds' Nest
   
   Note: Numbered picture of dishes correspond according with the above dish listing.

I absolutely love the crispy shrimp ball. Its the same filling that is used to as the base of most dim sum dishes (e.g. siew mai, haa-gao, fu-pi-juan etc). However, it does require deep-frying and I'm not that keen to deep-fry stuff at home on account of the grease in the kitchen after. So, perhaps I might use the base to make steam dim sums instead.

I'm fairly certain that everybody loves cod and I'm no exception. Needless to say, I love the baked cod too with the scrambled egg whites. Now this is a dish that I'm likely to want to replicate at home.

The third dish of braised abalone, conpoy and spinach tofu requires a fair amount of pre-preparation work, especially the abalone and conpoy. Louis has the knack of turning up at the class at the right timing becos the 3 assistants were in the midst of serving the dish to all the participants. Louis got to eat the spinach tofu and most of the entire piece of braise abalone before he left. Yes, you read it right! Each participant had an entire piece of braised abalone to himself/herself. I would think that if we were eating at a Tung Lok restaurant, that would easily cost about S$30-S$40 per head?

And in case you're wondering, it would be too much to expect that each participant would get an entire piece of bird's nest in our dessert serving. No doubt, the serving portion, generous as it was, was the serving size as what you would get at the restaurant. What we had was a dollop of bird's nest dropped into our almond cream dessert :)

Serving up bird's nest in this dish would certainly make anyone a revered and most popular dinner host. However, even if you skip the bird's nest, this dish would still be a soothing dessert with just the home-made almond cream and glutinous rice ball. Now this is one dessert that I can certainly make and would be appreciated by my vegetarian and fussy mom *wink*

It being the festive CNY period, Sam Leong was very very generous with the portions for the food tasting. It was like having a degustation serving portion of 4 dishes and by the time we were done, everyone was saying that they were too filled up to have dinner. And the class only cost S$139 nett. It probably would have cost us about that much if we ordered the same 4 dishes at a Tung Lok restaurant and we came away with the recipes and much of our burning and inane questions answered by THE man himself. I consider this a great bargain.

My one and only regret about this class was that I didn't take a picture with Sam as a momento. Alright alright! Louis and my SIL were reminding me to bring the camera and in fact urged me to take a picture with him. But I was too embarrassed to do it then and am having some small amount of regrets now. However, all is not lost. I've gotten Ching to help me purchase one of Sam's cookbook and have the great man himself autographed it. As for myself, I rushed off to meet up with my MIL, Louis and Faith to head for our annual pre-CNY dinner treat by my FIL's sister.

Certainly, I was so full at the end of the night becos its a good Teochew restaurant with a 8-course meal. Absolutely no regrets even if it means I've got to run more on the treadmill next week.

One more budding

Since Faith had grown her 2 lower front teeth in her 7th month, its been about 3 months of wait while I occasionally check and feel her upper gums for the other 2 front teeth to break through. This morning, I finally encounter something sharp as I feel her upper gum.

Hooray!!! The first of her two upper front teeth is popping out. I hope the other one would accompany it within the next few days. That probably account for Faith's erratic sleep last week and why she's been salivating so much for the last few days.

On another development, Louis and I were rather amused yesterday night by Faith's behaviour when we brought her out to Kiddy Palace in Toa Payoh. This little baby was squirming and fidgeting about in the car yesterday. The last straw was when she started crying when I try to restrain her and get her to stop squirming.

Hence, I gave her a stern look, reprimanded her and put words to action by hauling her car seat from the boot to the back of the car once we parked at HDB Hub. I had intended for her to sit in there on the return trip home. Faith averted and avoided eye contacts with me after that, clinging onto Louis' shirt as I put out my hands to try to carry her.

While we were at Kiddy Palace, Faith apparently got into a slight skirmish with her dad as I was busy looking around for a suitable round ball for her to play with. I think Louis was admonishing her for pulling her socks off her feet several times as we attempt to put them back on.

Shortly after, Louis wheeled her to my side in her stroller, grinned at me and told me that now, Faith wouldn't look him in the eyes. Our little girl has now been scolded by both Louis and myself around the same time that night and had decided to avoid our eyes altogether.

Feeling a little sorry for her and becos we are so used to seeing her smile back at us when we make eye contacts, Louis and I started to do silly antics to try to make her laugh, without much success.

I guess the innocence of babies is that they would forgive and forget after some time. By the time we reached our carpark, Faith was back to normal again, giggling and laughing with us as we tickled her.

With this incidence, Louis remarked to me that he's starting to believe what my SIL had earlier commented about the temperament of Aries babies, i.e. forget about the stick in the carrot and stick approach. They rebel when shown the stick. She should know better. After all, her 2 kids are all Aries :)

Opening of Blk 724 Ang Mo Kio Market & Food Centre

After more than 10 months, the wait is finally over. The much awaited opening of the market and food centre (FC) at Blk 724, Ang Mo Kio Central, has been soft launched since today, or rather, the food centre portion of it has been soft launched by some hardworking stall owners.

Since Tuesday, the barricades guarding the borders of the entire market/FC has been removed and we could see some contractors and stall owners busy renovating or trying to set up their stall operations in anticipating of its opening.

This morning, when my mom reached my place, she was telling me that a few of the hawker stalls have opened for business and there is a small crowd already eating and ordering from these newly opened stalls. Yippee! Thankfully, I had the foresight to tell my mom the night before not to buy me any lunch. Your truly is going to zip downstairs and join the little crowd to welcome back the previous hawkers for their 10 months of absence.

I guess everybody living around AMK Central must have had the same sentiment, cos it was more than just a little crowd that was gathered there. There were office workers, students and residents, all gathering and sitting down to enjoy the hawker fares.

Walking around all the stalls that were opening or in the midst of opening, I could see a number of our favourite stalls were thankfully in operation. There's the wontan noodles that Louis and I both like, congee, fried kway teow with cockles, mince meat and mushroom noodles, teochew fish porridge, Malay stall (great satays!), fried carrot cake (the white ones, not the black), western food, satay bee hoon, duck noodles/rice, yong tau foo, hot/cold dessert stalls, fried hokkien noodles. SLURP!

After much debating, I decided throw caution to the wind and have myself a plate of fried kway teow with cockles. Yummy! The fried kway teow was fried to the right degree of "wetness" with a generous serving of cockles. I was feeling only partially full after that and decided to indulge in yet another plate of sinful fried food. This time around, it was the fried carrot cake. Decide to pack that home to eat instead. But I could only finish half. Nevermind...Louis can finish the remainder tonight when he's back ;)

For dinner, Louis and I decided to head downstairs to eat while my mom fed Faith her porridge. I headed back to the Blk 729 FC for the 2nd time that day, while Louis has his first look around at all the stalls that have been set up. He settled for the satay bee hoon while I had my congee with dough fritters, to make up for my afternoon indulgence, although its hard to say it with a straight face that the congee is healthy on account of the fried fritter.

Am so glad that the FC is now open for business. Unfortunately, there are a few stalls that I haven't seen and am wondering if they had decided to relocate elsewhere on account of the 10-month long wait while the FC was being renovated. There used to be a vegetarian stall, which my mom said their red/brown rice porridge was nice. It would have been great if the vegetarian stall reopened so that there would be more variety for my mom. The other stall that I miss is the Indian stall, selling Indian rojak and mee goreng.

Well, there are still a few stalls that are still empty or whom, stall owners may seem to be taking their time to reopen. Let's hope the above 2 would be in that category of stall owners.

Saint Pierre Degustation - Winter Menu

The very first time Louis and I had a degustation was back in Dec 2003, during our honeymoon. We certainly pampered ourselves quite a bit. Amongst the places that we stayed in, Louis had the fortitude to reserve us in a great hotel while we were in the Loire Valley, at Chateau Belmont, a Relais & Chateau hotel that came with a 2-star Michelin restaurant. It was definitely an eye-opening trip and experience. And we were lucky and fortunate to be able to indulged ourselves such luxuries.

That being our very first time staying in such a grand place, we were certainly awed by a lot of things, or perhaps it was due to our inexperience :) Although we didn't expect that a degustation menu would take a total of 3 hours to serve nor the applomb and flamboyance the wait staff accord to presenting each and every item.

It was the very first and only time in our lives so far where every dish would be served in a dome-shaped cover and set in front of us. Instead of the usual where a waiter would set the 2 plates in front of you, one after another, there were 2 wait staff, eaching carrying a plate and placing it solemnly in front of us. Then, as if they had some silence cue to time it between them, they would uncover the dome-shaped cover at the precise same moment, with a bit of a flourish, explained the separate items composing of that dish before they left us to attack our plates.

That 3-hour dinner cost more than the our 2 night stay at the same chateau. But it was an experience that we never again encountered. Not even during our one year stay in France did we visit any Michelin-star restaurant, even though there were a few in Paris and another town quite near where we were staying. The irony of it was that we were too poor to afford the luxury of eaching in such restaurants. There's no regrets though. Even though we cooked at home to save money, we got to buy some of the freshest, tastiest produce from the open market and specialty stores in Fonty.

While I've got no regrets about staying at home to look after Faith, I do miss the splurges that you get to spend on special occasions while working. These days, I try to cook at home, eat leftovers or simply from the hawker centres and coffee shops near home. And so it was that I suddenly yearn to eat a degustation at a nice French restaurant. We asked the well-travelled gourmand, CP, whether Saint Pierre or Au Petit Salut was better and he said the former was more unique and value for money. So, we decided to heed the advice and reserve a table at Saint Pierre for Saturday.

It was one of those rare nights when we would leave Faith with the family while we had a little couple time. Saint Pierre's current degustation was a winter menu. As a further indulgence, we ordered a half bottle of red wine from the region of Haut Medoc to go along with our entire meal, instead of the wine accompaniment.

The first dish of Amuses Bouche was certainly very promising, setting the tone for the other dishes to come. It was a platter comprising an expresso cup size pumpkin soup, parma ham on a fluffy bed of nashi pear marshmellow, a thin slice of chorizo with salsa and smoked salmon with salmon roe. While pumpkin soup might seem ordinary, it tasted exactly like the hot turin of pumpkin soup that I first tasted on a cold winter afternoon in Brugge. It was what got me hooked onto the delicious and natural creaminess of pumpkin soup. Drinking it evoked old treasured memories of our honeymoon in Europe. The nashi pear marshmellow tasted what I think fluffy cloud would taste like, very light and foamy with a hint of the pear, going well with the saltiness of the parma ham.

The second dish of the lobster consomme flan with cappuccino bisque and scallop croque-monsieur was equally delightful, although I found the lobster consomme flan to be a little hard in texture. The cappucino bisque was thick with the strong flavor of lobster and the croque-monsieur was crunchy on the outside and delicate on the inside with a soft layer of scallop. Yummy!

I love the wasabi infused apple espuma in the next dish of trout confit. The trout tasted rather like salmon (I can't tell the difference between salmon and trout actually). But I love the apple espuma becos its like apple foam, with a very slight tart yet refreshing undertone. It paired very suitably with the trout.

I'm generally not one for game. However, the guinea fowl was well executed and tender without any gamey hint. In fact, it tasted rather like chicken :) The leek vinaigrette is another item that I like as the sweetness of the leek was brought out by the slightly sourish vinaigrette. Can't say that I enjoy the mushroom carpaccio as it was essentially raw button mushroom. Forgot to take a picture of this though.

Louis loved the veal jus that was drizzled with the escargot ravioli dish and he mopped his and my leftover jus with bread. My expectation of a chawanmushi is a soft egg custard. Unfortunately, the chawanmushi turned out a tad too firm for my taste, although I enjoyed the trio cubes of smoked ham, garlic jelly and comté cheese.


The next dish has got to be the absolute favorite of Louis and I and probably anyone else that has eaten foie gras. Saint Pierre is supposed to be well known for their foie gras dish and indeed, what’s not to like about the classic pan-fried liver with caramelized green apples and port reduction sauce. The more than generous slab of foie gras was slightly crispy on the outside, tender and ever so rich on the inside that every mouthful feels as delightful as molten chocolate. By the end of this dish, I was actually feeling quite full, probably from the bad move of stuffing ourselves silly with bread while we waited for our dishes to be served.

Indeed, the olive oil sorbet with celery coulis proved to be timely, as well a refreshing palate cleanser. The sorbet tasted lemony with a slight ting of olive aftertaste without being oily, and contrasted well with the celery coulis. It was so yummy that we cleaned off the entire glass of it and remembered only after that we forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well… just to show you how much we liked it, I’ve taken a picture of the empty glass :)

Now, even though this was supposed to be the highlight of the meal, I was so full at this stage that I couldn’t really bare the thought of the main entrée. I had the fish dish while predictably, Louis had the lamb.

Personally, I found the fish to be a little too well done and thus, hard. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the onion chutney best cos it was sweet with a very very slight tangy taste. Didn’t quite like the squid ink gnocchi either as it was a little rubbery tasting. Truth be told, my stomach was quite full by now that it would have to take something really really special to entice me to eat any further. As I’m not one for lamb, I can’t really tell you about the dish. I think it must have been good becos Louis polished off what’s on his plate, as well as to help me eat some of what’s mine.

Even though I said that I couldn’t eat anymore, the dessert finale most certainly was tempting enough for me to dip my spoon into the quartet of offerings that I felt I did sufficient justice to the spread. I passed on the white chocolate but attacked the tomato confit. The umami taste of tomato was certainly appetising for me to move onto the next item, which was raspberry mousse and celery sorbet (I think it was celery, I forgot). Again, the refreshing taste of the raspberry mousse and sorbet allowed me to lift my spoon to the next, although I must say that the very fact that it’s a crème brulee was by itself a draw. I thought the beetroot topping didn’t exactly pair well with the nashi pear scented crème brulee. I would be satisfied with just the nashi pear crème brulee with the usual caramelized sugar topping. However, Louis and I totally agreed that eating the coffee cremeux with lemon marshmallow last was the right move. The aromatic coffee expresso worked very well with the dollop of chocolate ice-cream. Like the nashi pear marshmallow in our earlier dish, the lemon marshmallow felt like we were eating another piece of fluffy cloud.

It was a good ending to the entire menu…

…Until the waiter came by again to lay the final set of cutlery for what was really the final end to the meal.

By then, I was ready to crawl out of the restaurant, clutching my bloated tummy. The real final dish was supposed to be grandma stroobant’s flourless chocolate cake. Nearly fell off my chair when the waiter finally presented the dish. It was served in glass jar, with lots of cream, crushed chocolate biscuits, orange jelly and get this… a more than generous side serving of melted chocolate sauce, to be drizzled over the entire dessert. In order not to disappoint the chef since it was his grandma’s recipe, I skipped the cream and crush biscuits and hit the chocolate cake and orange jelly. It was rich without being overwhelming, especially when you eat it along with the orange jelly. So, if Grandma Stroobant had peered into the glass jar by the time that I finished it, she would have given a nod of approval. I finished the small slice of chocolate cake and the orange jelly at the base. There was a lot of chocolate sauce left over but I’ve got to admit that if I wasn’t so full, I would have taken more of the sauce as it was the dark, bitter type of European chocolate that I like.

All the same, I was really glad that the meal was finally over and that we managed to finish it all in 2 hours. That was about the right time for us to head over to my MIL’s place to pick Faith up. Our little girl had dinner with the extended family and didn’t seem to miss us at all. We heard she was the loudest person in the restaurant that night, as usual, exercising her vocal chords :)

If its of any interest to anyone, here’s the actual description of our degustation menu, extracted from Saint Pierre’s website.

SAINT PIERRE’S DEGUSTATION (WINTER MENU – 2007/8)

AMUSES BOUCHE
assorted nibble platter to whet the appetite
*
LA MER

lobster consommé flan with cappuccino bisque and scallop croque-monsieur
*
TRUITE CONFIT SALADE DE PINTADE ET ORMEAUX
salad of poached guinea fowl with aromatic green leaves, carpaccio of wild mushrooms, grilled abalone with ginger scented tomato dressing, leek vinaigrette and hummus of coco beans
*
RAVIOLI D’ESCARGOT ET ROYALE DE CEPES
homemade escargot ravioli with porcini mushroom, chawanmushi, green tea smoked ham, vieux comté cheese, aoshiso emulsion and warm jelly of garlic confit with black truffle scented veal jus
*
FOIE GRAS CLASSIC
classic pan-fried foie gras with caramelised green apples and old port sauce
*
SORBET
olive oil sorbet with celery coulis
*
FILET D’AGNEAU EN CREPINETTE
crépinette wrapped lamb tenderloin and saffron confit celeriac served with char-grilled homemade bacon, edamame beans, oak-smoked ratte potatoes and white truffle essence braised white mushrooms
OR
SAINT PIERRE ET YUZU
roasted john dory fillet with yuzu sauce, ika scented with pine nut praline, sea urchin infused onion purée, pumpkin-foie gras mousse and squid ink gnocchi
*
GRANDE ASSIETTE DE DESSERT
tomato confit with white chocolate biscuit and raspberry mousse; nashi pear scented crème brulée; chocolate milk and coffee crêmeux with lemon scented marshmallow and grandma stroobant flourless chocolate cake

"You only need to prepare dinner..."

You know you’re good friends when they have no qualms about giving you notice on a Thursday that they would be dropping by your house the next day to visit you. And no, giving notice about a visit the day before is fine. Its only when they say “Oh, by the way, you only need to prepare dinner for us” :)

In their defence, we’ve been talking about meeting up over IM since before Christmas. But we, or rather I, never could firm up a date to meet. So, after much discussion between my two good pals, HM and EC finally decided that since this SAHM is too busy (even busier than these 2 workaholics) to meet, the mountain will come to Mohammad.

And all of these conversations about the logistics and final decision making had apparently taken place on Tue. But becos said SAHM hasn’t been online (What can I say? I was busy trying to lose that irritating post-delivery tummy), they only informed me via SMS on Thursday. Had to do some frentic grocery shopping on Friday morning to make sure there's food on the table :)

Despite the short notice, it was great to catch up with them though. Couldn’t quite remember when was the last time we met, but it was probably somewhere around my birthday. Faith “acquired” more new clothes, complements of Aunty HM and Uncle Hoo, and also got to show off her budding social skills. Yes, she’s still got some stranger anxiety to tackle, but now, she takes a shorter time to warm up to non familiar faces.

As for myself, I got to feel like my pre-pregnancy days, where we were more than happy to invite people over for some home-cooked food and lots of catching up. Thank goodness my mom was around. Else, I wouldn't be able to cook and look after Faith at the same time.

Which makes me wonder how did all my neighbours back in Fonty do it when they had to cook meals for the kids, as well as for dinners, while their hubbies were busy the entire day at school? I feel terribly guilty now for those nights when Manisa would invite Louis and myself to have dinner at her place, becos she heard that I was too busy to cook. And Manisa then had a less than 1 year old Saniya to look after, amidst all the housework to do. How she even found time to iron (I've got to secret to let out... Manisa even irons all their pyjamas!!) is beyond me :) Then again, Manisa is the best host that you'll ever have :)

Later that night, as we were getting Faith to wind down before her bedtime, Louis had the thrill of a lifetime, or so he thought. He heard Faith uttering "Ba-ba" for the first time. Well... for weeks, Faith has been going "baa-baa-baa-baa-baa" at odd timings. Despite efforts to try to get her to say "Pa-pa" or "mummy", she's only keen to say "baa-baa-baa-baa-baa". Yet yesterday night, she suddenly said "ba-ba" or was it "pa-pa"? Louis let out a loud gasp and tried to get our little girl to repeat herself. But she just smile at us and crawled all over the bed. So, we do not quite know if Faith has called Louis for the first time. All I know is that the day she finally does so, this anxious father would, like a friend said, melt into a puddle :)

Something going bump in the night

I'm soooo tired....

For the 3 nights in a row, Faith decides that she can't sleep in the middle of the night and would like to have some fun poking and jabbing her parents in bed. Monday night, she's woke up around 5-ish and wouldn't get to sleep until I fed her.

Tuesday night, she woke up at 2-ish, 4-ish and 5-ish am. I was too tired out from my day at the gym, so I caved in and fed her each time she roused so that she would go back to sleep. Yesterday night, she woke up at 4.30 am. This time, she still wouldn't go back to sleep despite being offered water, milk and some amount of rocking.

Finally, she fell asleep around 6 am after Louis carried her out of our bedroom into her own to rock her to sleep. Don't think she's teething becos I've been checking her gums to see if there are any budding tooth. Nada.

Along with her waking up at night, she's been resisting all day time naps since Sunday. Sigh... don't exactly know what's wrong. Hope its just a phase that she's going through and that she would go back to normal. Hopefully by tonight.

I'm going to take an afternoon nap today. Been feeling lightheaded from the lack of sleep for the last 2 days. Wonder how parents with 2 kids ever sleep? I know I know... regular lack of sleep is the norm for all parents, but still, I'm like a bear with a bug when I don't get sufficient beauty rest :)

Faith the drama queen

Faith is developing to be such a drama queen these days. This little girl of ours has started to display a lot more of her emotions through little actions and vocally, of course. Some of it can be downright amusing, sometimes exasperating and at other times, causing the people around her (namely me most of the time :)) to feel like tearing their hair out in frustration.

She babbles a lot at times for no apparent reason. It seems to be as if she's discovered the spectrum of her vocal cords and the different noises it can create. Hence, she makes a lot of noises just to experiment with it.

And when she stirs awake from her sleep at night (which actually happens quite often), she would cry out for us to go attend to her. Most times, I would be the one to go in to pacify her and get her back to sleep. However, there are times when I'm busy or occupied with some chores and Louis would be the one to go in. Somehow, she would sensed that its not me and would cry pitifully until I appear. At the sight of me, she would reach out her 2 little arms for me to carry her in my arms. Of course when I do take over from Louis to carry her, she would immediately stop her crying, settle down with a little sigh and drift back to sleep :)

Each time Louis and I go through the same scene with her at night, he would shake his head and quietly mouthed to me in the room as I carried Faith in my arms about how "manja" or "teh" she is. Most time, I'm rather pleased by this. Apart from the fact that it establishes the level of trust she has in me to comfort her (thus, boosting my confidence level as a mom), I get this nice, warm, cosy feeling that makes me wanna say "YES! She's a mummy's girl!" ;)

Fortunately or unfortunately, mummy's girl typically regains her growing independence in the day. Just last week, my mom was in the midst of changing her diapers and as usual, Faith would be squirming and climbing all around, making it difficult to wear her diapers. So, I raised my voice and scolded her. I had thought nothing about it after. But after the change of diapers, as I was with her on the sofa bed in the living room, I started to talk to her. Somehow, she avoided my eyes and turned away. I tried to put my face in front of hers several times just to make sure I was not imaging things. Indeed, she would turn her face away each time, avoiding all eye contacts with me, even when I held her at eye-level. Suddenly, my little girl seemed to be interested at every little thing to the left and right of my face.

Louis was just standing behind me when it all happened and when I looked up at him, he was laughing. I thought our daughter was either sulking or being angry with me for scolding her. Louis felt that she might be feeling sheepish for her actions. She finally relented to make eye contacts when I swing her up and down, a trick guaranteed to illicit laughter and giggles from her.

Which leads us to the conclusion that Faith might be understanding us and knows when she is being scolded for bad behaviour. Twice when she was playing with Louis' cellphone and either dropped or threw it on the floor, Louis raised his voice and sternly said "Faith!". At which point, this new drama queen's face immediately crumpled and she started bawling her eyes out. Even though its rather amusing, I'm a little annoyed by it becos she never seemed to be "tamed" when I raise my voice to scold her. Instead, she would sometimes smile back and me or giggle, thinking that I'm playing with her. Or, like what I described earlier. She would avoid all eye contacts me. Sigh...

Last Friday, she was sitting in her high chair having dinner when she decided to lean forward and gnaw on the plastic nob on the tray of her chair. My mom pulled her back to sit upright and slightly admonished her. At this, our little drama queen's face scrunched up, she drew up her chest and held her breath for a long while before letting it explode with a loud and heartfelt wail. Its the kind of wail that she lets loose when she falls and hurt herself quite painfully but for the first few seconds, the pain is so excruciating that there isn't any sound to her cries? Well... she cried like that and I was asking my mom if she pulled her back a little too forcefully, but my mom said she didn't. Besides, I was there myself too and it didn't seem as it if it was a painful pullback.

All of these has lead us to conclude that our little girl is developing to be a regular drama queen. And while its largely amusing for us cos she's still a baby, I'm fearing that as she gets older, this little girl would become a mull-headed, stubborn little girl. For once, I would like to be proven wrong!

New Year, new start

Its New Year’s day and we thought the morning would be like any others on a weekend or a public holiday. One where we leisurely have our breakfast, bath Faith and get her ready to spend the afternoon with her Ye-ye and Nai-nai. Then, a phone call from my MIL came and they asked if they could bring Faith to the park for a walk.

Well… Faith usually has a short nap after her bath but since it was New Year and it seemed such a lovely morning, we thought why not. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to break the routine once in a while. Originally, it was supposed to be just Faith and the grandparents going, but when they appeared on our doorsteps and said that the ACEs were also in the park, Louis and I decided to go along as well and make it a family event.

I would never be caught dead going out without at least my usual shower. I guess the New Year mood has gotten to me. So, I merely brushed my teeth, draw my eyebrows and stepped out for the first time without having my morning shower ;) But I’m truly glad that Louis convinced me to go. We had a wonderful time and whoever would have thought that an impromptu trip to the park would yield such beautiful pictures of Faith with her cousins, grandparents and Dua Peh (term addressing Louis’ elder brother).

MIL brought Faith to sit on the rocking horse and the swing. Faith had a lot of fun watching the kids play at the park. She seemed to be watching and observing all the activities, trying to figure them out in her little mind. These days, she’s rather fascinated by her 2 cousins and would love to paw them or touch them when they get near enough. And usually, she would love to paw them when she has slather her entire hands with her saliva ;) I overheard Anders saying this as he scooted out of reach of Faith’s saliva-stained hands, “Eeee… Mei-mei’s hands wet wet!”. Hahaha…

Anthea and Anders were having such a blast themselves too. They were already playing at the playground of Bishan Park when we arrived. Took some pictures of the 2As pushing one another on the swing. Louis and I are looking forward to the day when Faith is able to run around and play with her cousins. I’m sure the 3 of them together would cause a lot of ruckus and headaches for everyone, but it would make for an even stronger family bond and much cherished memories as they grow older :)

We headed back home at noon to quickly prepare and feed Faith her lunch, shower and got her to my in-laws’ place as we hurried to catch the National Treasure show at AMK Cathay Cinema. With a baby in tow, its so much harder now to want to catch a show without worrying that I wouldn’t make it back in time to feed her or prepare her food. Now that Faith is getting older, things are getting a lot easier thanks to lots of help from our family.

As for Faith, this lucky little girl got to sleep in a new automated sarong that her grandparents had bought recently. It’s a terrible habit but Faith sleeps best in the afternoon when she is either cradled in someone’s arms or placed in the sarong after being rocked to a somewhat semi-sleepy state. Hence, for many months, my MIL had to carry her in her arms while she slept, at times for 1-2 hours stretch. This pretty much means that my MIL can’t do anything but watch the TV.

To resolve the issue and also for the use of future grandchildren, my in-laws have decided to invest on a sarong at their home too. Faith must certainly like her new sarong cos according to my MIL, she slept 2 hours in it. For Faith, any nap time more than ½ hour is an achievement cos she typically goes down for short power naps.

We had our dinner at the new Thai Village restaurant at Leisure Park, near the Indoor Stadium. I remembered Leisure Park (previously call Leisure Drome) to be this dinky and old shopping centre but its been renovated and now, there’s a lot more shops and restaurants. Food at Thai Village was excellent, although I’m not sure why its called Thai Village though. With the exception of the claypot sharksfin, which was Thai, the rest of the dishes there appeared to be more Chinese :)

We concluded the evening with dessert at Yoguru, an outlet that sells yoghurt that is similar to Yami Yoghurt. We sneaked Faith some of they yoghurt and she must be on a sugar high cos she lapped the yoghurt up without any of the funny expressions and shuddering shoulders she would display when we fed her organic, sugar free yoghurt.

I’m glad that everybody had a great time on New Year’s Day. Even though this year, we couldn’t do any of the partying and countdowns, its still a wondrous feeling to spend the start of the new year enjoying ourselves together as a family.