Sunday Lunch

When all three of us eat together, we have to start feeding DN his food first. Once he sees us eating, he loses all interest in his own food and he starts to beg* for our food. We tried to trick him by pretending to scoop food from our plate onto his spoon, but it only worked the first two times. After that, no dice! He was probably thinking, "How stupid do they think I am???"

*Beg: Saying screaming "mum-mum" / signing "please" and "more" / pointing at our food / losing his patience and crying!!! Grrr...

Since he keeps eyeing our food and won't eat his own food, I thought it would be good to cook something for ALL of us.

Ta-dah! Shepherd's Pie! Or something vaguely like it. Shepherd's pie purists will probably feel violated because I used minced chicken and pork instead of beef and I chucked half a pumpkin inside. Haha.


1. Dice 1 red pepper ($0.99) and half a pumpkin. ($1.70)








2. Slice up 2 big onions. ($?? Found them at home)








3. Boil 5 large potatoes, Russets are good. ($1.35)








4. Mash the potatoes with lots of some salt and butter. I didn't add milk coz DN is allergic to that but milk is usually added for the creamy taste. Set the mashed potatoes aside.





5. Saute some garlic and add the onions. Fry until the onions caramelise a little. When they're almost transparent, toss in the pumpkin.





6. After the pumpkin has softened a little, add the red pepper. Cover the pot and let the pumpkin cook some more.






7. Add about 400g of minced meat and stir well. ($1.82 for the chicken and $2.20 for the pork) Cover the pot and leave to cook for about 15 minutes. Here's when you add some salt, pepper and whatever spices catch your fancy. (Oregano? Bay leaves?)



8. When everything's cooked, transfer to an oven-proof dish and spread the mashed potatoes on top.







9. Score the top with a fork. Why? So there'll be more crispy bits later on!








10. Bake on a high heat until the top is brown. It doesn't have to be in there for long coz everything's already cooked.






11. Tadah! Nice, brown and crispy!









12. Feed hungry baby that was peering eagerly into the oven earlier.









*This pie was perfect for feeding 3 adults and 1 toddler. Total cost of pie : only $8.06! If you add the cost of onions, garlic, butter, salt and milk... 12 bucks the most?

Was it a success? Well, yes and no. The adults liked the pie. The toddler? Hmm... he got sick of it after awhile. :( I think it was the lumpy texture that he wasn't used to. (He usually eats porridge.) In the beginning he ate everything. After awhile, he started sticking out his tongue and picking out all the meat lumps. That's gratitude for you. After slaving in the kitchen for 2 hours, my baby spits out his food and starts to use it as a medium for art. It's back to brown rice porridge next week, Mister!


"Looking cute is not going to make me forgive you for throwing mashed potatoes on the floor, okay? ... er, I think..."

Here fishy-fishy-fishy!

We have a little pond at the back with a little elephant fountain and some fish. Our track record for keeping fish (alive) hasn't been that hot. They've all died on us! We keep going to the aquarium to buy new fishes for the pond, wait sorry, RETIREMENT HOME FOR FISH. Seriously, my pond is like a hospice home for guppies and swordtails, a place for them to live out the rest of their lives. (usually a week, sob sob...)

I dropped by the aquarium to get a new batch of guppies. I think they are going to live long and prosperous lives because we've decided to move the pond outside. I hope the sun will do them some good. (Good luck guppies! May you live long! PLEASE!)

DN loves looking at fish. Whenever we're out and he sees a pond or hears running water, he'll starting signing "fish" and will crane his neck and try to find the fish. When we're at the fish section at the supermarket, he will sign "fish" frantically and stare at the fish. I wonder if he's wondering why they're not moving. :(


The new batch of guppies. Only $1.50 for the lot. We always buy arowana- fodder... the fish that are fish food for other fish!





DN probably gave all the fish migraines when he was trying to fit the bag into the jar. Look at them... they're all a blur!

Evening Walks

DN spends his days with his Ah Ma and Ah Kong (PF's parents) while we're at work. We drop him off between 8-830am and get back there around 630-7pm for dinner. He likes going there because his Ah Ma manages to find all sorts of things for him to do around the house, like carrying clothes from the room to the washing machine and transferring containers from box to box. His favourite activity there is going on walks around the estate with his Ah Kong, who will point out the lamp posts, cars, babies, assorted vegetation and animals along the way.

Dandy!

If I manage to leave work a little early, I'll bring him for a walk when I get there. It's more fun now that he can walk on his own. His favourite part of these walks is to visit the fish on the 1st floor. A neighbour has a pond with many koi fish. When he wants to go for a walk, he'll start signing "fish" or "shoes". If no one obliges, he'll grab his shoes and throw them at your feet! Haha.


The incumbent MP for Bukit Timah GRC on a walkabout around his constituency.








MP Ong Der Nen watching a demo tennis game.












During his walkabout, MP Ong Der Nen was especially impressed by one resident's koi pond.







Along the way, Mr Ong picked up a few souvenirs to remember his walk by - 3 baby coconuts and 1 pumpkin.







(Just kidding! The pumpkin's from the market! The coconuts are really from the garden though.)

Sleeping through the night...

NOT.

DN is 1 year, 2 months and 10 days old and he is still not sleeping through the night. Those of you with kids are probably going, "What?!" (as in, "I'd better start being kind to animals to earn good karma so it doesn't happen to me next time.") Those of you without kids are also probably going, "What?!" (as in, "What's the big deal?")

Oh childless ones, let me initiate you into the mutually exclusive worlds of babies and YOUR sleep. In the famous words of JK Rowling, "neither can live while the other survives." In other words, as long as you have a baby, you can kiss sleep goodbye. If you want to sleep for 8 hours at a stretch, DON'T HAVE A BABY. Get a hamster.

Just before I gave birth, a good friend told me, "Sleep as much as you can now." "Bah!" I thought. And I continued reading until 1am, watching midnight movies, surfing the internet at midnight... tsk tsk... sheer folly! In the wise words of my grandmother, "Can sleep, don't want to sleep. Silly girl."

Since DN's birth (1 yr, 2 mths & 10 days ago), I have had less than 10 nights of uninterrupted sleep. You don't know just how much I miss sleeping like a normal human being, from 11pm to 7am.

This is what DN's sleeping pattern looks like now...

8.30 pm --> Sleep.
10.30 pm --> Fuss. Pacifier has fallen out.
12.30 am --> Cry. Needs to nurse before can fall asleep.
4.30 am --> Cry. Needs to nurse before can fall asleep.
7.00am --> Wake up!

Because there are chores to complete and sometimes marking, I don't usually sleep until I've nursed DN at 12.30am. Then I wake up at 4.30am to nurse him one more time and then I'm up for the day at 7.00am. It's been like this for over a year and I can now pass off as China's national animal quite easily.

I am so not suited for this.

When I was young, my mother used to say that earthquakes cannot wake me up!
In secondary school, I used to sleep until 1pm on weekends!
Sometimes when DN cries, I manage to convince myself that it's a dream (or nightmare actually) and go back to sleep!

I don't know why it's happening to me. I'm a good person! I am kind to animals (squashing ants doesn't count right?) , I donate to the Community Chest monthly (running away from the donation-tin-wielding students along Orchard Road doesn't count right?) and I keep the house clean without a helper (washing the curtains only before Chinese New Year is okay right?).

We tried the cry-it-out method, but I gave up after 2 nights. It wasn't that we couldn't sleep through DN's crying, because we did. Like babies! Wait, I want to know who coined that so I can hammer the bugger. I think he meant baby SLOTHS. I just couldn't go through with the cry-it-out method and let DN cry for hours because I just felt sooo guilty.

We tried tiring him out during the day. Sometimes it worked, most times it didn't.

Many have suggested tanking him up on formula milk but DN cannot drink normal FM because he's allergic to cow's & goat's milk. He can only drink soya-based FM and he hates that. So he's still on 100% breastmilk which is easier to digest. That's probably why he gets hungry so quickly.

It's tiring being DN's "Meals-on-Wheels"!

SMILE!

We had breakfast at the NUS canteen at the Botanic Gardens last weekend. (cheap, good and empty!) DN was a good little one and sat in the highchair, eating his bread while PF had Nasi Lemak and I had kaya toast and eggs.

During breakfast, we found out that he understood what "smile!" meant and can now smile on cue! Yippee, no more pictures of a grumpy baby. I think.

We wanted to stroll around the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden after breakfast but couldn't because the carpenter was on his way to our place to finish up the doors. (we're renovating)


This is what his face looks like when you say "Smile Der Nen!" LOL.











DN : "I'm so thrilled there's bread on my cheek!"












His smiles only last for a few seconds. Wasn't quick enough here.










He started squirming and struggled to get out of the highchair when he spotted some mynahs behind him. He loves to chase after hopping birds.


EWWW.

We were seated outside, next to a row of shrubs AND THESE MILLIPEDES!!!

I am 14 months old!

DN turned 14 months old yesterday and bringing him out is getting easier and easier. PF finished work early so we decided to have dinner at Shimbashi Soba at Paragon. I brought DN's porridge out in a thermos and we reached the restaurant at about 6.30pm. Perfect timing! While waiting for our food (Cold Soba & Salmon Sashimi for PF; Soba in Soup with Seaweed & Mushroom Tempura for me), I fed DN his porridge.

He sat nicely in the high chair and flirted with all the waitresses. Great! (It kept him occupied while I ate.) When he was done with his porridge, he started eyeing my noodles, and going "MUM-MUM-MUM-MUM" at the top of his voice. Really. People were giving us funny looks.


Here he is, "beo-ing" my noodles and signing "please".













We always ask him if he has anymore in his mouth before we feed him more food. And he obliges with a big "ahhhhh..."!





Hey! There's still a little bit of noodle left!













We went to ELC (Early Learning Centre) after dinner (thanks for the idea, Ling!) because they have lotsa toys out for kids to play with. DN gravitated towards the household equipment. (Should I be worried???) Here he is, walking backwards (his new trick) with the vacuum cleaner.

Happy Halloween!

Who says you need a costume for Halloween?


DN as Casper the Friendly Ghost













DN as the murderer in "Scream"












The resemblance is uncanny!












DN as Quasimodo (note the upturned lip)












DN as ... as... himself!!!