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Food & Feeding

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The Taste of Success

February 5, 2010 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Hannah | 1 comment

Being an SAHM poses a different set of obstacles to overcome every single day.  Obstacles that the corporate world could never ever train you for, no matter how many learning courses you attend.

Some days, I have had to battle with my (on-the-way-to-independence) toddler on why he has to finish his dinner.  Coaxing him and promising him something he would like *if only* he would finish just a few more spoonfuls.

Some days, I have to sadly throw away most of the porridge I cook for Hannah.  She would take just one mouthful and then subsequently close her eyes and turn away when offered the porridge.

But some days, I taste sweet triumph…just like today.

Ethan, who, for as long as we can remember, will only agree to taking “rice with soy sauce”, asked for rice with FISH and CARROTS today.  And he really ate them.  Hallelujah!

 

Hannah, finished her entire bowl of rice, oats and millet porridge cooked with chicken, red dates, pumpkin and broccoli…and even asked for SECONDS!

Ahhhh…sweet victory indeed. 🙂

Her first porridge

November 26, 2009 in Food & Feeding, Hannah | 4 comments

It’s been long overdue but it’s finally here.  Last week, I prepared porridge for Hannah, just like I did for Ethan previously. I used organic red rice, washed it and oven-dried it. (I guess I chose red rice because it is not so starchy)

 

Then I ground the rice in a dry mill till the consistency is that of a powder form.

I used just one or two teaspoons to cook the porridge and the remainder of the powdered red rice is stored in an airtight container for future use.

Hannah’s porridge has yummy stuff in it too.  For her first time, I chose familiar tastes like carrots and potatoes.

Steamed and pureed carrots, and steamed and fork-mashed potatoes, that is.  I usually prepare them in bulk and freeze the rest in ice cube trays, like so:

This way, it makes it easier on subsequent days when I cook her porridge.

I mix the powdered rice with some hot boiled water, throw in the food cubes and put this mixture in a small claypot.  I put this claypot in a water bath in the slow cooker and let it cook.

Sure seems like a lot of trouble cooking some porridge, but it’s truly worth it when the *customer* smiles eagerly when the dinner tray is placed in front of her, and happily eats the porridge cooked with love.

Sometimes she tries to grab the spoon and feed herself too!

The Winning Combination

November 18, 2009 in Food & Feeding, Hannah | 1 comment

 

Bingo!  The winning combination of rice cereal + EBM + pureed carrot + pureed potato makes Hannah ask for more! 🙂

Their cups runneth over

November 13, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Hannah | 3 comments

I am very pleased that both my kids are fully on drinking cups now, be it regular cups or sippy cups.  No more bottles to wash, no more bottle nipples to scrub…

When we left for the States, Ethan was still on the bottle, and I had planned on weaning him off it while we were there.  I was about 70% successful.  He was only taking the bottle once in the morning and once at night, and then slowly we eliminated the night one.  When we returned to Malaysia, he went totally off the bottle for good 🙂

As for Hannah, since I breastfed her for 5 months without having the bottle, it was expected that she would not want the bottle, so now when she is at the sitter’s, she drinks from a sippy cup.  A toddler sippy cup, mind you…the kind without the valve.  We don’t have to worry at all about weaning her from a bottle 🙂

 

I bought these Tupperware bell tumblers from US, which comes in 4 different colors.  Ethan drank from these when he was at the daycare in US.  But now in Malaysia, he rarely wants to drink from them anymore, preferring instead to use regular cups.  The pink one is Hannah’s.  She drinks her EBM and water from that one.

The NUK sippy cup is meant for Hannah, but so far it doesn’t seem like she likes the spout very much.

We’ve also got these 2 cups for the kids.  Got them from Gilroy Gardens.  At first we didn’t want to get them because we only found Ethan’s, but then when we saw Hannah’s, we knew we had to get them both.  Ethan sometimes drinks his water from his “Ethan cup”.  It will be some time still before Hannah will be able to drink from hers. 🙂

Ain’t it fun being a kid, when you have all these pretty colorful cups to drink from?

The Power of Sibling Influence

October 7, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 2 comments

 

…or is it a form of (healthy) competition?

When Hannah was on medication a couple of weeks back, we asked Ethan to *witness* her taking the medicine using the syringe.  By the way, if you are not already aware, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to feed Ethan medicine.  He would kick and scream till the cows come home.

Anyway, Ethan was very intrigued watching us feed Hannah.  Hannah, on the other hand, was initially receptive of the medicine, but after a few rounds, she knew how to turn her head away when she saw the syringe.  Only Daddy knew how to administer the medicine in one swift motion 🙂

A few days later, Ethan started sneezing.  So I asked him, “Ethan, are you sneezing?”  He said, “Yes”.  I said, “Do you want to take some medicine?  You’ll feel better after taking it, and then when you are all better, Mommy will take you swimming.”  He paused and kept quiet.  I continued, “I’ll ask Daddy to shoot the medicine into your mouth like Hannah, okay?”  He said, “Okay.”

And I almost fainted.

I asked Daddy to get the medicine ready, and MIRACULOUSLY Ethan allowed his Daddy to give him the medicine without any fuss. After that he downed it all with some Milo.

Therefore, do not underestimate what Hannah can do or influence at her young and tender age. 🙂

Ethan made cookies!

October 4, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 2 comments

As a SAHM, I try very hard to think of activities that would be interesting and stimulating enough for both Ethan and me to enjoy together.  After all, he is in school for half a day, and the rest of the time, he needs something to while away his time (other than watching TV 😛 ).

So last week, I asked Ethan if he would like to help me make some cookies.  He was excited and said YES.  Ethan’s favorite cookies are chocolate chip cookies, and I figured it would definitely be a healthier option to eat homemade ones rather than commercially purchased ones. 

For the recipe, I again turned to Happy Home Baking for her Chocolate Chip Cookies (Drop Cookies, as she calls it), and made sure I had all the ingredients.   After all, I had achieved good results with the Horlicks Doggie Cookies recipe before, so I trusted the track record there 🙂

 

I taught Ethan how to stir the egg and vanila into the mixture, and then I showed him how to fold the flour into the cookie dough.  And fold he did…never mind that some of the flour fell on the table, chair and floor… hehe.  Then Ethan helped to bring me the chocolate chips and poured them into the mixture (I think that was his favorite part).  And he watched as I scooped tablespoon after tablespoon of cookie mixture on the cookie sheet to bake in the oven.  Okay, he couldn’t resist *testing* a bit of the mixture though…

He then excitedly watched the cookie bake in the oven and exclaimed “WOW” when I took them out to cool on the rack.

I told him we had to wait for a while for it to cool first, because he was impatient to eat them.  He counted the cookies on the rack while waiting.

The verdict?  The cookies tasted not-too-sweet and had a crumbly texture.  Ethan LOVED it!  And when Daddy came home, he told Daddy, “I made cookies!” 🙂

There are no more cookies now.  Should we bake some more next week, or should I devise a new project instead?

How to get orange juice into a picky eater

October 1, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 3 comments

Easy!  Get his help making Orange Juice popsicles! 

Even better…Ethan had his popsicle served in a YELLOW popsicle holder, his all-time favorite color!

 

The picky eater update

September 26, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up | No comments

 

He loves:

  • Rice with soy sauce gravy
  • Butter sandwich drizzled with a little bit of sugar.  Shape of sandwich will be requested by him.  Current favorites are STAR, TRAIN and TRUCK.  Coming in a close second are DIAMOND and SQUARE.
  • Koay teow from the chicken hor fun served at Old Town.  You should hear him say “Koay Teow” 🙂
  • Roti Bakar from Old Town (sometimes only, depending on mood)
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Blueberry muffin
  • “Golden bread” a.k.a. golden potato bread.
  • Hard-boiled egg white with some soy sauce.
  • Homemade pancake with maple syrup.
  • Milo chilled.
  • Fresh milk.  He now ASKS for fresh milk.  It was so funny that day when he spelled “SEGAR” and asked me what it was.
  • Pediasure milk chilled.
  • Vanilla ice cream from McDonald’s.
  • Fries.
  • Chocolate “anything”!

BUT… over the past few days, I learnt that he has been eating quite well in school. 🙂

It was one of my primary concerns that he would not eat at all in school and go hungry.  So I always ask the teacher to let me know what he has eaten, if he has.  A few days ago, Ethan told me happily that he SWALLOWED chicken!  I was ecstatic, but I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not.  So I asked his teacher and she said yes, they served fried noodles, and there were pieces of chicken on top, and he ate them! 

The following day, Ethan told me he ate carrots. I checked with the teacher and she said he was served porridge with carrots and he ate it too, albeit being fed.  And today, he told me he ate chicken, carrots AND mushroom!

But why won’t he eat the chicken at home?

Maybe it’s because his teacher told him he has to finish his lunch at school before he can go home… LOL

Hannah’s first solids

September 7, 2009 in Food & Feeding, Hannah, Milestones | 5 comments

Yesterday marked the day I introduced Hannah to her first solids.  Just like for Ethan, I mixed some rice cereal with fresh EBM into a runny consistency(actually you couldn’t even tell the cereal was there!)  Good thing I managed to bring back the Gerber rice cereal from the US.  This one does not contain sucrose but supposedly tastes really good.

…and Hannah was living proof of it!

 

She was very eager from the onstart and tried to grab the spoon a few times. 

As expected, some of the cereal dribbled out from the sides of her mouth, but she was practically willing to open up her mouth every time I offered her a spoonful.

Although she made a “sour face” on some occasions, and tried sucking on the spoon, she managed to finished the entire bowl of rice cereal, much to my joy 🙂

The conclusion?  Hannah is definitely READY for solids, and has a voracious appetite to boot!  Today, I gave her the same thing for tea time and she finished it all too!  Bravo Hannah!

Doesn’t this happy face tell you how much she loves it?

All about “The Grape”

July 13, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 3 comments

 

It has always been a struggle to feed Ethan medicine.  Back when he was still breastfed, I would just rely solely on breastfeeding to get him well.  But when he was weaned, I dreaded it when he became ill.  Usually, we just let nature take its course and he would eventually get better.  Most people say that over-the-counter medicine for kids in the US are more palatable and hence, we should buy some to take home with us.  Medicine that comes in various kid-approved flavours like cherry, bubble gum and grape definitely appeal to kids.

Well, most kids, anyway…but not Ethan.

Ethan has been coughing for several weeks now.  The problem is he refuses to drink a lot of water AND he refuses to take medicine.  We bought a bottle of Tylenol in GRAPE flavour.  And although the mixture tastes really good, just like concentrated grape juice and nothing like the yucky tasting Rhinathiol or Polaramine, Ethan would have none of it.

We forcefed him this Tylenol Grape a few times, or rather we *tried* to feed him with it, but he would just spit it all out.  Even though the characters in his favorite Dr Hippo books drink Grape medicine when they are sick, Ethan does not want to follow suit.

Now, our typical conversations would go like this:

Daddy: Ethan do you wanna drink GRAPE?
Ethan: No!  I don’t want it!
Daddy:  You have to choose: either drink Grape or drink water.

And of course he would gladly drink the water.

We tried to add the Tylenol into his chocolate milk a few times, but after just the first time, he suspected we had added it in, and he told me, “I don’t want grape Mommy!”  And he would stand behind me as I poured the chocolate milk for him, just to make sure I did not add anything else in.

Sigh…

He is still coughing though, but I guess we have to wait for him to heal himself.  Here’s what we go through every day:

Ethan: (coughs)
Daddy: Are you still coughing, Ethan?
Ethan (shaking his head): Nooo…I’m NOT coughing Daddy…
Daddy: You just coughed Ethan.  You have to drink Grape!
Ethan: No Daddy.  I don’t wanna drink Grape Daddy.

And then today…

Hannah coughs.
Ethan: Hannah coughing?  Drink Grape!

Mommy: (coughs)
Ethan (immediately): Mommy, are you coughing?

😛

Looks like our bags will not have bottles of grape-flavored medicine then!

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