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Food & Feeding

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You, me … dinner … tonight?

January 5, 2008 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Parenting | 12 comments


Scrap Credits
Wild Flower Holiday Quickpage from Gina Huff
Rough & Tumble Add On elements & alphas from Flergs

A few months ago when I called my girlfriend Audrey, she told me that every Saturday her almost-4-year-old daughter and her indulged in a mother-and-daughter bonding session.  They would go to a nearby mall in the morning, do some grocery shopping, and then have lunch together.  When I told Pete about this, I expressed how I longed for a similar experience with Ethan… well, that experience might not be too far off…

Yesterday evening, Pete had dinner plans with his colleagues.  So I had two options: one was to have dinner myself first and then pick Ethan up from the sitter’s, or two: to pick him up and hop on over to Queensbay Mall for dinner, per our usual Friday routine. 

I opted for the latter.

I was working from home yesterday, so I left our house around 6:15p.m. for Mrs Tan’s place.  Ethan was very excited to see me, even to the extent of refusing to allow Mrs Tan to carry him to the car, preferring to stick to me like a koala bear.  Surprisingly though, although he looked happy and recognized the route to the mall, no excited panting accompanied his joy.  Nevertheless we arrived and I was happy that there were plenty of parking lots available.

After reading about Susan and little Samuel’s pleasant dining experience at Wong Kok Kitchen last week, and since we have never tried the food there, I thought we might as well give it a shot.  The restaurant was not packed and we were promptly seated, with Ethan of course occupying a very familiar Ikea white and silver high chair.  I ordered the wanton mee and the char-siew pastry puff: stuff I figured Ethan would like to eat too. 

He seemed very happy in the restaurant, even kicking his legs in rhythm to the music being played.  With his cheeky smile and strategically positioned high chair (he was facing the counter area), it didn’t take long for him to command the attention of the servers at the restaurant.  I was rather astonished that he didn’t scream loudly in protest when they all started looking and smiling at him, instead he smiled back, well sometimes he showed his cheeky toothy grin… and when he was too overwhelmed, he lowered his head and peered shyly at them.  He did take a few spoonfuls of the mee too, but not the pastry.

Overall, it was a fun experience for both Mommy and Ethan. He was at his bestest behaviour and I was very proud of him …actually, the first time I’d taken him out for a meal myself 🙂  Pete was a tad concerned if I would be able to handle Ethan on my own in the mall, but his fears were unfounded because Ethan is always in a good mood in the mall… and that just makes everything so much easier…

After dinner, we went for a walk to Borders to get a copy of January’s Malaysian Women’s Weekly… here’s why…

What a fabulous way to start our weekend, eh?

More more chicken rice!

January 1, 2008 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 6 comments


Marinated chicken cooked with rice
With all other ingredients, they sure smell nice
Oh yes, it was Mommy’s claypot chicken rice day
What an awesome way to spend a lazy Saturday!

I set the table, laid out the rice and soup
Checked to make sure there was something in every food group
When I heard a pattering of footsteps and an urgent call
It was Ethan by the table, standing so very tall

He must have sensed that his meal was ready
He must have realized that he was actually hungry
In all obedience he sat in his high chair
And waited in patience for the yummy affair

He devoured every morsel with pure satisfaction
I truly enjoyed his every reaction
So the love for chicken rice is a trait inherited
Like father, like son, it ain’t overrated!


Our Mamak Breakfast

December 5, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 3 comments


Scrap Credits
Orion Kit from GABHappyScrap Designs
Template 13 from Simply Yin 

Last Monday, after we dropped off our car at the Toyota Service Center for servicing, we took a cab to Queensbay Mall. We arrived at Queensbay Mall before 10:00a.m. and since the mall only opened at 10:30a.m., we decided to walk over to a nearby kopitiam for breakfast. Turned out that the kopitiam in mention is a 24-hour mamak stall. We ordered nasi lemak bungkus, tosai and roti canai. And of course, Ethan boy had a taste of everything we had.

He especially loved the tosai though, and we decided to give him more of that, since it was the healthier option of the three. He is turning out to be a *sampah-thang*, huh? 😛 Pete says he takes after me in that aspect…

Happy Birthday Chor-Chor!

December 2, 2007 in Celebrations, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up | 3 comments


Scrap Credits
Template 33 from Jill & Jack ScrapDesigns
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels
Papers:
Ilétait une foi from Petit Moineaux
Wintersand from ScrappyBlueStones,
Midnight Blue from Lindsay Jane Designs 

Last Sunday, we made a day trip to Alor Star to celebrate Ethan’s Chor-Chor’s (my maternal grandma’s) birthday (she’s 87 this year!!!).  It was a lunch celebration and we arrived at the restaurant close to 1:00p.m., just in time for the first dish to be served.  To Ethan’s delight, it was mee-koo (steamed buns with a sweet lotus paste filling), and he devoured almost two of these with the appetite of a king!  Well, actually he ate almost everything that was served, save for the spicy stuff.  And when he was full, he of course demanded to walk around the restaurant, much to the tiredness of Mommy and Daddy, and much to the amusement of all the guests present.

Oh yeah, the birthday cake-cutting session always comes with a photo-taking session, but it just so happened that it coincided with Ethan’s eating.  He was still busy enjoying his food when we carried him out of his high chair to take a photo with Chor-Chor.  Of course he was unhappy.  That resulted in a very difficult and trying photo-taking session indeed.

Nevertheless, the food was good and we all left with very full tummies. 🙂

When will he be Bulat again?

November 19, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Parenting | 9 comments

Ethan is now on the road to recovery. Breaks our hearts to see him suffer the way he did, but I was so glad to wake up on Sunday morning, being greeted by his adorable and cheeky grin.

On Saturday and Sunday, his stools were still primarily watery, I suppose due to the fact that his diet consisted mainly of breast milk only. But I am hoping that with the additional solids he is slowly taking, his diarrhoea will be gone really soon. His appetite has not returned to normal yet, but he took some siew mais and chicken koay teow on Saturday. Funnily enough though, he didn’t want any siew mai on Sunday.

As it turned out, Pete and I were invited to be witnesses at a friend’s wedding in church on Sunday, so we had to drop Ethan off at Mrs Tan’s place for a couple of hours that afternoon. I expressed my concern that he was not eating much yet, and asked Mrs Tan to cook some mee suah for him. When we picked him up, she told us that he happily devoured the mee suah and bread also! So we tarpowed some of the mee suah back home for his dinner.

Guess what? Our boy didn’t want any of the mee suah, but instead chose to share some of my wan ton mee dinner. Maybe he associates mee suah only with Mrs Tan’s house?

He looks ok now, doesn’t he? These are some photos I took yesterday…. pretty blur because he kept moving up and down on the couch. It’s just that he needs to regain his appetite really soon.

First time shocker

November 15, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up | 6 comments

We had to do a major clean-up of Ethan’s car seat today.  You know why?  Well, Pete and I left work rather late today, so we decided to fetch Ethan and take him out to dinner with us.  We headed for Queensbay Mall and into Nando’s for dinner.  As usual, Ethan shared my rice with me and then after our meal, we walked around for a bit.  I wanted to check out if Borders carried a book I wanted to buy.  And that was the only place we went to after dinner.  Ethan was very happy and excited and because it was a weekday, he practically had the entire children’s section in Borders to himself.

After that we left Queensbay Mall for home.  As soon as Pete stopped the car in our apartment porch area, Ethan started throwing up!  Pete and I got such a shock because it was really the first time Ethan had ever vomitted so much!  In fact, he only vomitted once before, and that was when he was sick and wouldn’t eat anything, so the quantity of the vomit at that time was very little.  Well, tonight he vomitted so much that his clothes were all soaked.  Of course, he was still strapped into his car seat when it happened, so his entire car seat was dirty too.

I immediately carried him out of his car seat and up to our apartment. And it goes without saying that in the process of doing so, some of his vomit went to my clothes too.  Anyway, I quickly gave him a shower and dressed him up in his pjs.  Ethan looked okay, he was not feverish or anything but he appeared to be in shock, and would not say anything after the incident.  We put on his Baby Einstein DVD for him and I breastfed him for a bit.  And then it wasn’t long before he drifted off to dreamland.  Poor boy…. we told him not to overeat the next time.  No wonder my rice seemed to be less today.

The Pappadum Prince

November 6, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 6 comments

We had lunch at Tandoori House last Sunday. It has been years since Pete and I had gone there, and it was comforting to note that not much has changed. It was also Ethan’s first time at the restaurant and he sat in the baby chair provided, albeit without a tray.

When the waiter brought the appetizer in the form of pappadums, Ethan eagerly asked for some. He had tried pappadums before in Passions of Kerala and Old Town, so he knew what they taste like. The pappadums turned out to be the one thing he really enjoyed. I was glad that the pappadums were not oily and hence was okay for Ethan and his “eight teeth with 4 more growing” to munch on.

He was a little bit apprehensive when it came to the rice though. We had ordered the Kashmiri Pulao, which was colorful because it contained raisins, basmathi rice and other herbs and spices like cumin and cinnamon. Ethan would only eat the rice and none of the onions or spices. If he tasted any, he spat the mouthful out.

I gave him some mango lassi too. At first he didn’t want to sip the drink because it didn’t look at all like iced lemon tea, but when I gave him a taste of it from the tip of the straw, he realized that it tasted like his favorite mango yogurt and happily walloped most of it!

Ribs, Steak and All Things Great

September 27, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Funny Moments, Vacation | 8 comments

We made a 3-day-2-night trip to Mutiara Damansara last weekend to visit Ethan’s newborn cousin, Jonathan.  On Saturday, we had lunch at Tony Roma’s.  We had great company during lunch too, Ethan got to meet up with his Ah Mah (my Mom), his Ah Kor, Ah Koo and Ah Kim.  Tony Roma’s is located in Cineleisure, which is somewhat connected to The Curve; I was amazed to discover that it was a mere walk from Italiannies and Laundry Bar (actually we were undecided as to what to eat that day, but since Tony Roma’s looked rather empty, we decided that would be it).

Tony Roma’s in Malaysia is so different from the ones in US or Singapore.  For one, it did not have (my favorite) baby back ribs.  We ordered 2 plates of full-rack ribs and a strip-loin steak, oh and of course a plate of the appetizer sampler too.  Though different, Pete and I were happy to note that the food at the outlet was very good.  The ribs were soft and (can I say) finger-lickin’ good.  Actually we were afraid that the food would be a sore disappointment like Marché was last month, but we were glad that our fears were unfounded.

Ethan had a good time during lunch too.  I was thrilled to note that Tony Roma’s Cineleisure had on their menu the same Baked Potato Soup I had ordered for Ethan when we were in Tony Roma’s Suntec City, Singapore… so I ordered that for him.  It all started ok, but then our boy decided that he wanted to have a go at feeding himself.  Since I had brought along his set of toddler utensils, I gave them to him and he began scooping the soup bit by bit.  And scoop he did… bit by bit fell on the front of his shirt.  It was a very messy sight indeed.  Then I suddenly remembered I had also brought along his Ikea shirt-bib, so we helped him put that on.  But no sooner had we done that, Ethan decided that he wanted ME to feed him instead!

 

In the end, off came the bib, and it was Ethan by himself again with his soup and some rice too.  I tried tying the napkin around his neck, but that fell down too.  So we allowed him to have fun with his food, messy though that may be, and took him back to the hotel room after that to clean up.  See?  That’s the good thing about staying right next to the restaurant 🙂

The Food Monster

September 13, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 5 comments

Ethan’s appetite has increased in leaps and bounds since his recent bout of illness. That’s a really good sign, although it is all really in the scales and we shall know for sure if he has gained a significant amount of weight tomorrow when we take him for a visit to Dr Jessica for his (long-delayed) JE jab.

While I am at work, Ethan takes a total of 3 solid meals now, not including his milk feeds. I’m guessing he takes lunch, tea and early dinner. If you take into account the oatmeal he has for breakfast, then it will be 4 solid meals. Mrs Tan cooks porridge for him still, but at home and during weekends, he takes whatever we eat. Sometimes Ethan joins us for dinner after we pick him up from the sitter…we normally do this on Fridays…and guess what, our boy will be eagerly requesting for food too! Boy, has he got an expandable tummy!

For the past three days, I have also included supper in his diet. After his nightly shower, I make him a bowl of cereal, sometimes Kellogg’s Frosties and sometimes Rice Krispies (I’m thinking of trying Cocoa Pops tonight). I mix the cereal with Pediasure, which I heard is more *fragrant*, as it tastes just like vanilla milkshake. Of course,the introduction of supper is really a means of paving the way towards complete weaning from breastmilk too. And I am pleased to note that for the past three nights, Ethan has cheerfully and happily finished each serving (2-3 oz of Pediasure with cereal).

Well, he still wants to be nursed before he sleeps now, but with supper, he *seems* to be waking up at 3:00ish a.m. instead of the regular 12:00ish. So that’s a good sign. 🙂

Recipe for a Mess

September 1, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 4 comments

Ingredients

  • 1 high chair
  • 1 plateful of delicious homecooked rice, topped with yummy gravy
  • Colorful kiddie utensils from Ikea (Ethan loves these and was introduced to them in Nando’s.  We spotted them at Ikea and got him a pack)
  • 1 shirt-bib from Ikea (Ethan does not take kindly to the conventional bibs, so we found this gem when we were in Ikea last weekend.  It looks just like a t-shirt, but the back is open.  Fixed to the baby via velcro at the neck, it contains a pouch in front to catch all the stuff that would potentially drop while baby is eating)
  • 1 very hungry toddler

Method

Put all of the above together and wait to see what happens.

Caveat: Expect some cleaning up afterwards.

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