Ending the Month with a Bang!

From the length of this post, I'm sure you can figure that we had a really full day. It started off tastily with home-cooked sugary vanilla French toast, coffee and Fuzzy and I shared Chubbs' banana breakfast. After Chubbs' nap, we zipped off to his PD, Dr. Chan, to have the fall documented, and get his first pnuemococcal jab at the same time. She gave him a clean bill of health after checking his motor and visual responses and he took his injection bravely. However, the semi-solids made Chubbs balloon a little. He now weighs 8.6kg... that's a 6% gain in three weeks. Thing is, I don't even feed him the semi-solids until he turns away (the sure sign that they can't take another bite) because the food should not be filling him up. At this stage, they are just tasting, and the bulk of the calories and nutrition should still come from breastmilk. Nonetheless, I do feed him roughly the daily recommended portions to get his accustomed to eating. Dr. Chan's diplomatic comment is that "he's well-padded" :/ We checked with her about his talking too. She says that he shouldn't be talking until at least 10months, and if he is saying "hai" already, he probably doesn't mean it. Haha. Another case of over-zealous parents :/

At the PD's.

We were then off to Ikea, where we frequented every week before Chubbs came along. There's always something to buy there! Today, we picked up shelving units, a book rack and four photo frames. After the mandatory hot dog, we used the car ride to lull Chubbs into a nap, and drove to our bakery haunt, Provence, at Holland, for my weekly dose of Cream Wassant and Milk Bun. Next stop, Bukit Timah Plaza! Fuzzy needed supplies from Popular as he is currently crafting a surprise for me :) We also picked up some organic Pink Lady apples for Chubbs' next edible adventure.

Finally we got home, in time for me to peel, core, cube, steam and puree the apples for Chubbs. Apart from the occasional blemish expected in organic produce, the apples were very sweet, fragrant and a little tart. I froze most of the apple sauce, and decided to feed Chubbs the extra that could not fit into the freezer cubes. He loved it and so did Fuzzy, who licked the blender clean!

We also introduced Chubbs to water for the first time. Dr. Chan suggested that we give him a few teaspoons now that he's on semi-solids, and because he is so active. I didn't expect him to like it since it is urm... tasteless, but he gulped it down, licked his lips and asked for more. He must have found it refreshing after the super sweet apple sauce. Good boy!

Dinner reservations were at Bistro Petit Salut at Chip Bee. Their sister eatery at Harding Road left us wanting more, so we celebrated today by checking out the original outlet to see if the two places match up. The Bistro has a relaxed feel to it, and diners who do not mind the humidity will enjoy the candle-lit al fresco dining.

Chubbs vetoed this outfit before we stepped out of the house.

Our baby was chirpy in his special seat on an adult chair. He sat playing with his teether happily until we were half way through our mains. Then bedtime loomed and he decided to serenade our fellow diners with his (in)famous shrill chorus. To entertain him, Fuzzy introduced him to the chefs. Chubbs promptly reached out to shake their hands (this is his new favourite thing to do). I must say my son has quite a firm grip.

Food-wise, Fuzzy had escargots (again) for starters, and I opted for the seafood platter with prawns, baby scallops, baby octopus, and salmon tartare. My hubby liked the snails and thought they tasted better than at Harding, but the flavours on my seafood platter were rather "off". The octopus was overly garlicky and salty, the salmon was bland and the prawns had been given the bicarbonate of soda treatment, lending them a crunchy, rubbery texture.

We chose the same dish for main course. It was a meat platter with home-made pork sausage, a piece of sirloin, a piece of onglet, and confit of chicken leg. They were all well-seasoned and well-cooked. It's an excellent concept for people (like us) who sometimes can't decide what to have. I feel that the small portions of different meats help me enjoy them more, as opposed to one big hunk of the same something. To accompany the copious total amount of meat, we ordered a glass of Bordeaux and a Burgundy to share. The wine was good, but the small glasses they were served in did not do the wines justice. The bold, complex flavours in the 2002 and 2004 reds were not allowed to develop. We were so keen on pigging out that I forgot to take pictures before we started on the mains. Here's what's left at the end.

We both wanted the Mont Blanc for dessert. The combination of chestnut puree, meringue, whipped cream and vanilla ice-cream sounded heavenly. But Fuzzy was sorely disappointed by it, because the puree was not sweetened (he likes everything sickeningly sweet) and had a gritty texture. It made the "sweet" ending a very bland one. I loved the smooth, creamy gelato though. The other let-down? The all-important cup of coffee was not part of the set dinner.

The service was, again, impeccable. The food was passable, mediocre, forgettable. But the company and time that the three of us shared, and the lasting memories are priceless. Fuzzy and I concur that we do love our little family meals so.

Post-Fall Chubbs

I'd like to say a big "THANK YOU" for every phonecall and kind sms that I've received over the past couple of days. Thank you for caring about my little Chubbs, and frequently reading his blog. Thank you for showing love and concern to our family. Thank you for all the re-assurance that babies are hardier than we think. Most of all... 1) Thank you to all the aunties and uncles for the horror stories and confessions of having dropped our cousins and nephews on their heads when they were infants. Katie, if you're finding out for the first time reading this, I'm very sorry to have been the one to break the news to you. 2) Thank you S, and self-proclaimed "godfather" A, for voluntaring the information that they fell out of bed as babies. Their claim to fame? That they turned out "alright". Heh. My sincerest appreciation.

"Thanks guys!"

After 48-hours, the post-fall Chubbs seems... well... the same! The family expected him to be a little shell-shocked from the accident and hence be subdued for a while, but... no! He's still as fiesty, sweet, crawly, playful, hungry, loud, drooly, cuddly, talkative, cheerful, poopy, fearless, splashy and cheeky. Thank God!

Enjoying his avocado breakfast.


Am I relieved? Urm... I don't think I'll stop holding my breath for the next 30 years. Will this affect him in Kindergarten? Will his intonation and articulation of speech be compromised because he hit the right side of his head? Will he be less intuitive? These questions and more are continually ringing in my head. But I guess the answers will only come later. Meanwhile, we are still watching out for vomiting, loss of appetite, grogginess, loss of motor dexterity, change in temperament and so on.

Chubbs is still head-butting my face, crashing into the rails of his cot, and trying to tunnel his way through my tummy with his head, etc. Sigh. Fuzzy and I are seriously contemplating getting Chubbs a mini crash helmet. Chances are, you'll see me at Canterbury this weekend... buying him a baby scrum cap.

You're Driving Me Bananas!

I'm quoting Chubbs' feeding bib because my creative juices have been rather muted since his fall. This evening, I did something out of character. I veered from the advice that I've read online, gotten from paediatricians, friends and people in the know! I did not follow through with the 4-day wait rule to feeding semi-solids. This is very important as it helps confirm baby's reaction to the new food and to be able to pinpoint any allergies.

I went with my better Mommy judgement instead, and decided to keep the frozen French bean puree for later. As part of our crisis management program (after his fall), I played the trump card. I gave Chubbs a taste of what I'd consider as babys' all time favourite... banana! I waited a while to give him banana because it is so sweet that I'm afraid he will be put off by the blandness of vegetables after this. Anyhow, I favour the small, sweet Malaysian Pisang Mas over the uber-sized Del Monte ones. My M-I-L showed me how to scrape the banana to shun the seeds and I mixed it with breastmilk and brown rice cereal into a yummy slurry. Needless to say, Chubbs slurped up every last bit of mushy goodness.

He has this habit of licking his lips clean whenever he likes the food. Too cute!

We also bought the tray table for Chubbs' high-chair (finally)! Ikea was out of stock for the longest time. As a surprise, we bought him a new toy with a suction base to be affixed to his tray table. It can spin, rattle, has a mirror, a ball, chewy bits and more! Chubbs was well-chuffed. He played with it for over 30-minutes, and it kept him entertained throughout our home-cooked tempura dinner. Toy-buying success!

French Beans

Some call it green beans, I call it French beans... even though real French beans are called haricot verts and are much finer and daintier than these. I digress...

The butternut squash agreed with Chubbs rather well, and it's time to move on to tasting his first vegetable... French beans. I bought some organic ones from Thailand at Fairprice Finest. They looked very fresh and were surprisingly spotless.

Usually to prepare them, I steam/blanch them before trimming the fibres that run alongside, so that the vitamins do not leech into the water. But because I'm cooking for Chubbs, I trimmed the fibres before cooking. Steaming is a form of sterilisation, and being the germaphobe that I am, I'm not comfortable handling his food so much after they have been cooked. After steaming them to al dente, I pureed them with a stick blender until smooth, spooned into his baby cubes and left in the freezer.

So far, so good right? NOT!!! I served the French beans to Chubbs as is, without adding breastmilk or rice cereal. I've never seen him so violently opposed to anything before! He was banging on the chair and pulling on his ear until it was beet red. Chubbs' face was one of sheer disgust and horror. He gagged a few times but valiantly held it in. He didn't like the beans either, when I mixed a little in with a lot of brown rice cereal.

The queer thing is, he still opened his mouth wide when I brought subsequent mouthfuls to him. I guess ultimately, if I force it on him, Chubbs will tolerate the stuff and eat. But his eyes were red, watery and I couldn't bear to traumatise him any further. Moreover, I want him to have happy associations and relations with food and not ever view food as an obligation.

I know I should try to feed it to him a few more times before concluding that he doesn't like it. But I have a hunch it's not a flavour thing. It might be the gritty texture that he is not ready for, so he can't get it down. I'm inclined to keep the frozen cubes for next month or so before trying again. I'll play by ear and see how he feels tomorrow. At least I still have some butternut squash and avocado as back-up.

"I'd much prefer this."

Baby Bump

My hands are still shaking as I type this. About four hours ago, my little Chubbs fell off our bed, and hit his head on the floor.

I was preparing him for his nap, and repeated what I did everyday. Put him in the middle of our king-sized bed with his bolster and wipe his face down with a cool towel. I walked about three steps to put the towel aside so that I could pick him up. When I turned around a couple of seconds later, Chubbs was already falling head first off the bed. My instinct was to grab him, but I only managed to catch his feet before I heard a loud, sickening thud.

He wailed out of shock, confusion and pain. I scooped him up and rushed him downstairs to Fuzzy. We placed an ice-pack on his head to ease any swelling, but the cold and numbness made him cry more. So we stopped, for fear of further pressure compounding in his head from the crying. Fuzzy's aunt (an anesthesiologist) rushed over to examine Chubbs. She said he looks fine because he's still as active and alert as ever, but we need to monitor him closely over the next few days for abnormalities in behaviour, lethargy, loss of appetite, vomiting, and over drowsiness.  As of now, unless we subject Chubbs to an x-ray scan or MRI, which are not good for him, we won't be able to detect blood clots (if any). If we notice changes in baby, we need to rush him to A&E immediately. This is very serious (I'm sure you've heard of what happened to Liam Neeson's wife, Natasha Richardson).

I blame myself for under-estimating how fast Chubbs can crawl now. He must have pushed himself up to crawling position, keeled over, and continued his crawl before falling off. All this in less than three seconds! His look of pain and fear when he hit the ground will forever be etched in my mind. Please help pray that my baby is unharmed by this accident.

"I should be fine Mommy. I'm a strong boy."

New Bath Pals

I don't know why Fuzzy and I do this to ourselves. He splashed out (pun intended) on puffy, bright yellow, waterproof stickers of ducks (or are they penguins?) to stick in Chubbs' bathtub. We have relegated Sunshine to being an ornament for a while now, because Chubbs tends to chew on him, in turn ingesting a lot of poopy bathwater. So Fuzzy decided to replace his bath time entertainment with these stickers instead.

"Are they for me???"

I must say that they are very cute, and my hubby has good taste in stickers. But you should also know by now, that my darling son is a very excitable boy. The result? The ducks/ penguins made a splash and Chubbs had a splashin' good time. We did not exit the loo toasty dry at all :/

 "I like!"

Like Daddy

I can't help but feel that Chubbs is a miniature version of Fuzzy. Like his daddy, Chubbs has an affinity for all electronics. Since birth, he has been fascinated with light fixtures (when they are not turned on), cameras, laptops, second hands on watches, automatic watches (because he can hear the whirring sound), phones, camcorders, remote controls, and especially switches. He often stays in his crib, staring at the plain, white, light switch above for 15-min. And he'll take off and crawl at lightning speed to grab phones and cameras the second we leave them in his vicinity... we sometimes can't get him to go for his brightly-coloured, rattly toys no matter how much we try to entice him with them. He enjoys being my companion when I'm on the laptop... lying beside me, watching the screen.

This is him craning his neck to check out Tai-Gong's camcorder.

Studying how blocks get stacked.

Chubbs also adores cars (Fuzzy's first love). I carry him by the gate or window most evenings to watch the cars go by. I teach him colours, car brands and types of vehicles (MPV, van, SUV, coupe, sedan, truck, motorcycle, taxi, etc.). Also, we play this game of turning in the direction that we hear a car coming from. Amazing thing is, Chubbs has a much more acute sense of hearing than I do (I blame the live concerts). Sometimes he turns, I follow wondering why, not seeing or hearing anything at first, and finally noticing engine sounds 3 seconds later. Chubbs will hold his gaze and follow the car as it passes.

We think he'll be an engineer, in Marketing or R&D for cars, in Finance like daddy, or an electrician when he grows up. I'm praying for the former few.

Butternut Squash

After four days of avocado with no allergic reaction, it's time to introduce Chubbs to a new flavour. For breakfast this morning, I opened a jar of organic butternut squash that his doting Grandaunty Jan carried back from Vancouver. It smelled so sweet and fragrant, I wanted the whole jar to myself! Besides being yummy, butternut squash is an excellent source of Vitamin A/ beta-carotene, which has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties (supports healthy lung development in newborns).

Chubbs was intrigued by the bright orange colour, and was keen to get his chompers around the spoon. One taste and he was hooked! No frowning, no spitting out, no ear-pulling (he does this whenever he's frustrated). He enjoyed every bite. Way to go, buddy!

Can you see the squash smeared around his lips?

Hai

It is affirmative that Chubbs' first word is "hai"; a very breathy "hi". It took us a while to ascertain if he was consienciously saying it, or it was his regular babbling. After a few days of repetition, we have concurred that our son has indeed started speaking proper. He says "hai", or "heh" when you acknowledge him, when he's trying to get your attention, to his toys, when he hears the word "hello" said anywhere, and when you say "bye" to him.

Chubbs has also learnt (on his own) how to wave while saying "hai". He has been spotted slamming his arms up and down when his little cousin Tres is leaving, and many times giving his special wave together with his hellos when he daddy returns from work or when trying to get us to talk to him. We didn't consciously teach Chubbs this, but he must have picked it up because I always wave and say hi to him when he's being held by someone else and I spot him looking in my direction. I do it just to tell him that I'm nearby and I know he's over there... never expecting him to catch on. I have probably done this at least 10 times everyday, for 6-months now. It's comforting to know that our efforts are not in vain. I'm eager to hear his first "mama" and "dada". Take you time, buddy.

"I'm King of them all!"

Avocado Revisited

I'm pleased to announce that Chubbs has grown rather fond of avocado. After several days of trying and changing tactics to help him enjoy this food more, my persistence has paid off. He can now polish off a large slice (1/8 of an avocado) and even asks for seconds! It could be partly because avocado is an acquired taste and it took him a while to get used to the (green) look and oily feel to it. I mixed in some breast milk to make the consistency a little smoother (milkshake?), so it's more palatable for him. And for his evening semi-solid feeds, I stir in some brown rice cereal together with the milk to make the meal more substantial. He's a happy little camper again :)

 "Can I have more, please?"

Beach Ball

Chubbs loves playing with the beach ball I bought him last week. I got this idea from Little Gastronomy's website. I think it is a great toy because it holds his attention for at least 15-min at a go, it trains his arm/leg coordination, I get to teach him colours and shapes, I can show him how to catch a ball, and he learns cause and effect from kicking the ball away and then crawling after it. He laughs out loud when I roll the ball down from his forehead to his toes, or bounce the ball on his round tummy and loves it when I roll him over the ball.

Moonlit Crawls

Chubbs has been officially crawling for a week plus, and he surprises me everyday with how fast he can squirm. I'd leave my mobile on the bed to go get his toys, far away from him, thinking he can never reach it. Next thing I know, he's chewing on it. All the time still holding on to the stuffed toys he was playing with. It's as if he had no time to put them down before launching for the phone (because Mommy will be back soon), so he dragged his friends along for the ride.

Fuzzy and I also noticed that Chubbs has developed a new hobby over the past few nights. He has mastered the art of sleep-crawling, and it all happens within a matter of seconds. He literally pushes himself up from his tummy sleeping position, stays on all fours for a few seconds, shuffles his hands and knees a little, then keels over into his foetal sleeping position; his eyes tightly shut the whole time. He's so proud of his new crawling prowess that he feels compelled to practise all hours of the day (and night). Fuzzy and I always have to contain our laughter for fear of waking him up. Beyond cute!

Table for Three?

This week's Sunday family lunch was at Tanglin Club. Fuzzy and I decided to try out a new purchase. I found this Dutch product online, called Sack n' Seat. It's a seat cover/ harness that fits over dining chairs, holding the baby in snugly. It's great because Chubbs' will always have a clean seat (we are germaphobes), he won't be stuck in uncomfortable and dirty baby chairs, it's as if we're holding him in our laps, he can perfect his sitting skills, and being in an adult chair by himself makes him feel like a big boy. He was so thrilled. Some restrictions to this product are, that the baby must be able to sit stably on his own, and the dining chair has to be quite regular in size and shape. The chair Chubbs was given was a little too tall, so our booster was towels under his bum.

You won't believe this, but Chubbs sat in his special seat for a whole hour (no fussing even though it was nap time)! All we did was give him his teether and links to play with, and we did not need to carry him once. He just sat there playing on his own, chatting with the waitresses and watching the buzz of the restaurant. Good job, buddy! For the first time ever, Fuzzy and I could both eat at the same time, enjoy and finish our meal without having to tour the restaurant with Chubbs. With this special seat, I can make reservations for three from now :)

I am so proud of him.

Avocado

Chubbs has been on brown rice cereal for two weeks now. He started out with a very thin gruel and I've been thickening it bit by bit. Now that he has learnt to swallow his food well, I can introduce other flavours and textures to him. I'm feeding him avocado because it is high in good fats, iron and Vitamin E, is not strong tasting, and has a smooth, creamy texture when mashed. It's the ultimate superfood for babies.

Unfortunately, Chubbs does not quite share my enthusiasm (just like his daddy). Here is a count by count report.

The first bite.

He contemplated the new taste.

He spat it out.

So I thought I'd be clever and trick him into eating it. I ate most of the avocado in his bowl, then I mixed his regular brown rice cereal into the remaning bits. He saw this and was very happy, thinking that he got his good ol' rice cereal back.

Then he tasted it properly.

He spat it out.

Can't fool this one. Looks like I'll be having avocado rest of the week :/

Au Petit Salut and More...

We seldom cook breakfast. Firstly, there's no time to prepare or enjoy it on weekdays. Secondly, we are easily contented with good bread and butter. Thirdly, weekend breakfasts are usually ta-powed hawker food from all over the island (courtesy of my F-I-L). But Fuzzy was on leave, and Chubbs woke us up bright and early. So I jumped at the chance to make us some vanilla-sugared french toast. Mega yum!

For lunch, we headed to Au Petit Salut (with cute little Chubbs in a restaurant high-chair for the first time!). I've been wanting to visit since they opened in Harding Road, and the refurbished building looks lovely. Chubbs alternated between playing with the dinnerware and his toy, looking excitedly around, and coo-ing to the servers. A lady even came up to us to ask incredulously,"You mean, your baby just sits there?"

Eyeing the baguette.

Playing with glasses.

We were there for the set lunch and were very impressed by the choices available, presentation and portion sizes. Starters were escargots in garlic and tomato butter, and pork (fat) rillette with gerkhins. Both were delicious with lots of bread. For our main course, Fuzzy picked the braised beef cheek in red wine sauce.

I chose onglet with creamed potatoes and onion confit. Onglet is also known as "hanger steak" and is part of the diaphragm of the cow. A tasty dish commonly found in Parisian bistros. Fuzzy prefered the onglet after having a bite (he found the braised beef cheek too gelatinous), and I lovingly swopped mains with him :)

Because Chubbs was getting fussy in his seat (it was nap time), and baby strollers were not allowed indoors, Fuzzy and I had to take turns to hold him so the other can eat. One of the staff noticed this and enthusiatically offered to carry Chubbs and walk around so I can enjoy my meal. So she whisked him off to the adjoining garden, and then disappeared! One of the waiters reassured us that the lady was bringing Chubbs to their office upstairs to play with their boss and he would radio her to come down once we want our son back :/ I gobbled my food down because I missed Chubbs a lot. He only threatened to cry when Fuzzy went to retrieve him and realised that he missed us. With my baby snug in my arms again, our dessert and coffee arrived.

"Happy to be back!"

My order was chocolate macaroons with cranberry sorbet. I had to have this because macaroons are one of my favourite things ever, and sorbet is refreshing after a meaty meal.

Fuzzy's was classic creme brulee infused with Madagascan vanilla beans. We found this a little too eggy, but the robust vanilla flavour made up for it.

We felt satisfied and happy after ending the meal with Illy coffee (we love this espresso blend). Overall, the staff are very attentive, food is above average and the ambience is lovely, whether for friends to idle away an afternoon chatting, or for lovers celebrating a special occasion. And at $70plus for two, the quality and quantity of the set lunch is definitely value for money.

The afternoon agenda was supermarket shopping at Jelita (free parking!). I needed to get an avocado as Chubbs' next food, and stock up on baking supplies. We also bought a small inflatable pool and beach ball for Chubbs. We figured this as an avenue for Chubbs to showcase his inner synchronised swimmer and leave us dry during bath-time. Moreover, we've already got his swim diapers ready.

Since we had the luxury of doing an early dinner, we were off to our second favourite Japanese place, Sakuraya. Hey low-gong, this is a sentimental place for us, no? Chubbs caused quite a buzz when we walked it. Some of the waitresses even started snapping pictures of him with camera phones. It got a little weird.

Anyway, we eat here for two reasons. 1) Sashimi- you choose the size and variety you want from the fridge and they slice and serve it to you. We had scallop and salmon. Usually, we will choose the salmon belly, but my hubby OD-ed on it the last time we were here. 2) The grilled salmon belly marinated with mentaiko (cod fish roe). Scrumptious! Just give us Japanese rice with this, and we're happy. We also ordered ika with natto, miso soup, rice and deep-fried saba (the only disappointment). As an aside, this restaurant is wildly popular because of its fresh fish and low prices. So please go early or make a reservation.

Dessert was the "cake" I made yesterday and coffee, while feeding Chubbs his evening portion of rice cereal. After a solitary bath (sorry Sunshine) and feed, Chubbs settled down to sleep. Fuzzy and I curled up on the sofa and played very silly computer games (flavours of the moment are PigRace and Sheep Ski Jump Xtreme) until we dozed off.

It was a great day.