Tulips, tulips everywhere

My favourite flowers are tulips. So, last fall, before the weather became too cold, my father-in-law planted some tulips bulbs in the front yard.

I have been waiting forever for the weather to turn nicer and to see if my tulips survive. Well, look what I got! (These were taken with my new camera with the macro setting) Tulips are perennial plants, so they should come up every year, no re-planting required.

Daffodils


Tulips



On another note, look at my silly girl, Miss Strawberry head. She kept putting this cap on.

Introducing Linus

This is the original Linus from the Charlie Brown gang. His trademark is his thumb sucking and carrying his security blanket everywhere he goes.

This is our very own 'Linus'.

Olivia does not suck her thumb but she recently started carrying her blanket everywhere she goes. Adorable, eh?

Are you a good parent?

"I was a wonderful parent before I had children. I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with their. Until I had three of my own" - Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish

I sure can identify with the quote above. Before we had Olivia, whenever we see a child misbehaving and the parents not doing anything about it, hubby and I would say we would not raise our child to be that way. There has to be discipline, he/she has to know the limits, we cannot spoil him/her.

Now, I do not fully agree with the American way of parenting. They give the children too much 'democracy' and some parents don't even act as parents, they want to be chilren's friends. When children are young, they need and crave discipline. They want a parent to show them what the boundaries are. You can be their friends when they are older, when they can make their own reasonably good judgement, perhaps in their late 30s. LOL

Anyway, Olivia is 17 months old and is quite stubborn (wonder where she got that from ) So, imagine my embarassement when I went to pick up Olivia yesterday and she threw a tantrum by lying down on the floor in the lobby of the daycare center! This is because I took her daycare bag away from her. She was carrying it but it's too big and the strap is too long, that's why I took it.

I'm turning in one of those parents we frown upon before we were parents. YIKES!

Super baby food

After I had Olivia, I became obsessed with what I'm feeding her. I started making my own baby food when she was 7.5 months old and I'm still doing it. For all her homemade food, no salt or sugar is added but I do put in other spices like pepper, garlic powder, onion powder etc.

If you're making your own baby food, below are the foods that are highly nutritious and good for their development.

Super veggies
Broccoli
Carrots
Asparagus
Peas
Spinach
Sweet potato

Super grain/legumes
Brown rice
Whole wheat pasta
Millet
Lentils
Split peas
Tofu

Super fruits
Avocado (good for brain development)
Apples
Pears
Plums
Bananas

Passover celebration

Passover is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the exodus from Egypt. This holiday is one of the most important holidays in Jewish culture. In biblical times, the Jews were slaves to the Egyptian pharaoh. Moses, the chosen one, leads the Jews out ofEgypt, by parting the Red Sea.

This story is depicted in Prince of Egypt (an animated series), which was banned from being released in Malaysia. The original film is The Ten Commandments that starred Charleton Heston.

Today, during Passover, the Jews eat matzah, which is an inleavened crackerlike bread. This is to symbolised the same stuff being eaten when the Jews were fleeing from the Egyptians and couldn't wait for the bread to rise.

The most prominent item on the dinner table during the Passover celebration is the seder plate. It is usually large and decorated with Passover symbols. Each symbols has a unique meaning and some represent the sufferings of the Jews under the pharoah.

One of the foods unique to this celebration is the matzah ball soup. The matzah ball is made from matzah meal. It is quite delicious.

It sucked being....

....a woman....

....a working woman.....

....a working woman who is also a mother.....

Statistics showed that with the same qualification, experience and skill sets, a woman would earn 20% lower than a man in the same capacity.

There is also the negative perception of the ability of working mothers being able to handle a certain job function due to family commitments, by male bosses. Men just could not comprehend how difficult it is to work full time, rush to pick up the kids, then home to cook. However, they have the gall to judge a working mother, just because she leaves work at a certain time every day, even though all deadlines have been met and her work is all done.

This, I believe qualifies as DISCRIMINATION.

Don't be fooled

Before Olivia walked, I wished that she would walk sooner rather than later because I have to carry this 25lb baby around. She is 25% of my weight and no wonder my whole body ached at the end of each day.

Anyway, I was hoping when she can walk, she would not want to be carried as much. Well, I was WRONG! Now, she would come to me, put her hands towards the air and say 'up up' and if I don't pick her up, this is what you'll see.

Chicken pot pie

So, I was looking to try a new recipe this weekend and decided to make chicken pot pie. I got the recipe from the food magazine that I subscribe. The recipe is here, for those who are interested.

The only changes I made to the recipe are:

1. I used store bought rotiserrie chicken, instead of cooking the chicken myself, because it cost less and saves time.

2. Instead of phyllo sheets, I used pie crust. I also added mushrooms.

Here are the results.




Pretty good eh? Next time, I would make it a double crust instead of single crust.

I don't believe this

I'm sick again! Between Oct 2007 and now, a 6 months period, this is the 3rd time I'm sick. In Oct, a cold turned into a sinus infection and I have to take antibiotics for it. 3 weeks ago, a cold turned into a mild bronchial infection and I have to be on antibiotics again. This time, it is a cold, hopefully it doesn't turn into an infection.

Before having Olivia, I hardly get sick. I exercise regularly and am strong as an ox. Even during my 9 months pregnancy, I didn't get sick. After that, everthing went down the hill. I don't have time to exercise anymore and the stress of taking care of a baby probably made me weaker.

I have to get back to my yoga exercise routine.

Cool baby gadgets

When you have a baby, a thermometer and nasal aspirator is a must have. Recently I purchase these cool gadgets:

1. Temporal scan infrared thermometer

I have an ear thermometer but unless you can get it in the ear canal correctly, the reading is not really accurate. There are times when daycare said Olivia has a fever but when I used the ear thermometer, it reads 96.7F (normal temp is 98.6F). It was so frustrating.

With this temporal thermometer, you just slide the scanner across the forehead and it gives you an accurate temperature every time. I even tried it on myself, just to make sure. :-)

2. Electronic aspirator

Olivia gets a cold pretty often, since she's in daycare, and when she is congested, the manual bulb aspirator just doesn't work properly. She hates it when I try to stick it in her nose and 90% of the time, it won't suck out the mucus.

So, I got this battery-operated electronic aspirator which is non-invasive. Just put the soft tip outside the nostrils and press the suction button. The mucus will collect in the collection cup. It even has a music button to distract the baby/child.

No, I did not try the aspirator on myself!

Mommy's little helper

"I'm going to clean the house today, doo da, doo da,
I'm going to vacuum while I play, oh doo da day,
Vacuuming the floor, through the open door,
I'm going to learn new things today, tomorrow I'll learn some more. "

Olivia likes to clean. When I vacuum the floor, she'll vaccum with me.

After her meal, she would ask for a piece of napkin and wipe her tray clean.


Looks like I have a child with a clean streak.

TV or no TV

The American Association of Pediatrics urged parents to avoid television viewing for children under 2. Research on early brain development showed that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other caregivers for healthy brain growth, and the development of appropriate social, emotional and cognitive skill.

As we know, children nowadays watched to much TV and TV viewing take the place of other activities. They spend less time playing outside and less time reading.

I have not let Olivia watched TV until after she turned 1. She only watches Baby Einstein DVDs on the weekends and not more than 1/2 hour a day. She doesn't watch during the week, since she is in daycare.


Olivia learned a lot from the Baby Einstein DVDs. She can now say more than 20 words and understands a lot more.

During winter, when it's too cold to take the baby out, watching the program is something to do.

I'm a bit uneasy letting her watch the programs but since I control the duration and she is learning something, I hope I'm not doing more harm than good.