Udon Like Mee

I know I will soon receive some hate mail on this post's low-class/ cheesy header. But I've been rather stressed lately, mainly because Chubbs hasn't been eating at all (started way before he fell ill). And by that, I mean, he would have two nibbles of a sandwich at dinner, and that'll be it. He's off fruit, veg, chicken, cheese, bread, biscuits, etc. I.e., he's off all food! And the Terrible Twos are officially in full-swing! I don't envy my position right now.

Anyhow, while roaming around 313 today, Yee, Fuzzy and I found a cool spot for lunch. A Jap restaurant called Kamado, that specialises in Sumiyaki (grilled skewers), and they had some interesting set lunches to offer.

Checking out the decorative over-hanging flags before the food arrived.

My set of two Wagyu skewers with grilled peppers, shitake mushroom and ginko nut skewers went nicely with rice and miso soup. The food was seasoned just right and flame-grilled to perfection. Chubbs always liked Jap rice, and ate a little off my bowl. Then Yee's meal of grilled pork belly over rice, and udon in soup came, and Chubbs couldn't take his eyes off the bowl of noodles. We let him try some, and he was hooked. He proceeded to demolish the entire contents of the bowl. Fuzzy and I are noodle-mad, and it looks like we have found ourselves a partner for our future gluttonous endeavours.

Looking on greedily as Mommy picks up a strand of noodle.

Udon monster!

After an empty-handed walkabout in Mandarin Gallery, we capped off the greedy day at Jones the Grocer to re-fuel with coffee, madeleines, and some terrible macaroons :/

A flower with your latte?

Chilling with Grand-Yee in Mandarin Gallery after all the food.

First Sniffles

Chubbs got his first ever bout of sniffles yesterday. His nose was dripping, he was so oozy he could hardly walk straight, he was coughing, he wasn't eating, wasn't drinking his milk, and to cap it off, he threw up all over me. After the monstrous effort to put food into him, everything landed up on my lap (because he felt so sick that he ran to me to lay his head on my lap just seconds before).

He seems a little better today. His nose is stuffed up (can't breathe, can't nurse), he sounds gruff, still coughing, but he's eating a little better, and doesn't seem as grumpy. I feel like such a rookie trying to handle his illness, because he hasn't really been sick this way before. I admit, I'm a noob. I seriously need advice from friends who've been through this.

Despite his not feeling well, he's still keeping up the mischief.

He always gives this smug grin everytime we measure how tall he is; he asks to be measured at least three times a day. This photo was taken just about an hour before he threw up :/

Pretending to take his own temperature right after we took his.

Initiation

Chubbs got his first scraped knee yesterday. I was holding his hand and walking along an asphalt pavement, when he tripped over his feet and scraped his knees on the ground. He whimpered only a little but didn't fuss after. Maybe he was a bit puzzled as to why Fuzzy and I were congratulating him on his first official boo-boo. We treat these things like badges of honour; and were beaming with pride. You ain't tough till you've got the mandatory boo-boo on your knee. It's the initiation into toddler hood.

The crying came much later, when Fuzzy tried to clean the wound with an alcohol swab. We could tell it was getting infected because it started swelling up and looked weepy. Chubbs was really taken aback by the pain, but took it bravely. Even in the bath later, he didn't complain. We could tell it was smarting because he kept jerking his knee away from the soapy water, and hurried us to be done with the bath sooner.

I'm happy to report that the wound isn't bothering him at all today. He's every bit as mobile as before, crawling around per normal, and messing around with his new toy, a talking Handy Manny toolbox set. Fuzzy's mum know how much he loves this cartoon, and bought it for him at a recent sale. Chubbs watches Handy Manny almost everyday (we have learnt some Spanish through it), and I have to say that it's a great show and this is a great toy!

Staring the toy down.

Begin disassembly!

Pleasantly surprised to hear the tools talking.

Dancing to the theme song.

Rough Patch

I apologise for not having updated this space in a long time. In all honesty, I haven't the mental capacity nor physical energy to turn on the computer and log into my blog space, much less string words into coherent sentences.

Chubbs has been particular difficult these couple of weeks. He has stopped eating completely again, refuses to take his formula/ fresh milk, throwing tantrums for no reason, doing the direct opposite as you say, and the works. Yup, I know it's the terrible twos, and I know this is part and parcel of toddler hood. Despite all the knowledge we have on this behaviorally experimental stage of their lives, there's still no escaping the hard fact that managing him all day long takes an enormous toll on me. I'm so spent physically and emotionally that my body sometimes shake under the effects of fatigue, exasperation, anger, desperation, hurt and sense of loss, all rolled into one massive stress bubble. I hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.

Nonetheless, Chubbs is still as cheeky as always, and here are a few snapshots of him moping around the house.

3-D glasses are a fashion statement.

As is using the letter B as spectacles.

Playing with Joely, the rottweiler, while eating yoghurt.

Polliwogs and Korean BBQ Once Again

After Chubbs' last encounter with Polliwogs, Fuzzy and I have come to the realization that agility isn't our son's strongest suit. He was never a crawler. He was cruising, i.e. walking while holding on to things, since he could fathom the concept of it. He never put one knee in front of the other as a form of getting from Point A to B. Maybe because of this, he's not extremely good with balancing, because he needs to keep his body low, and that doesn't come naturally to him. He's probably thinking, "Why use four limbs when you can use two? I'm much too practical and energy efficient for that." Haha. Me and my silly musings.

So I've started "training" use his body and hands, and not just his legs. Like showing him how to crawl under the arch of his slide, go over pillows on the ground, climb onto his rocking horse, etc. I'm happy to report that the training's been going well. This visit to Polliwogs, he was braver, more daring with the stairs and slides, and was able to manoeuvre the obstacles much more fluidly. I was very proud of my boy. And I could tell he was very proud of himself too.

Raising his arms and shouting, "Yay!" He was raring to go.

Yelling for me from way above. "MOMMEEE!"

Taking time out to mess with the arcade machines.

We were hungry for dinner after the workout of chasing Chubbs around for a couple of hours. We've already decided beforehand to having a Korean BBQ buffet at Ju Shin Jung. Once bitten, twice shy? NOT! I didn't exactly enjoy everything the last time around, but I thought since this was a buffet of grilled meats, I could stuff my face with nothing but meat, and not have to bother with the monotonous tasting side dishes. It was great! I enjoyed every bite of slightly charred pork belly (chunks of unctuous fatty goodness), marinated pork rib (our favourite), and pork collar wrapped in raw vegetable parcels. Mega delish.

Appetisers that are not so appetising to me :/

Chubbs playing "cook-cook"; one of his favourite past-times.

Very happily wiping his face and hair with an ice-cold and wet towel at the end.

20-Months and Mothers' Day

Chubbs turns 20-months on the second Mothers' Day that I'm celebrating. Cool. I planned a dim sum lunch for my M-I-L, together with the extended family, Fuzzy's aunts and grandaunts, at NUSS' Chinese restaurant.

"Feeding" Daddy.

"Feeding" Mommy.

Mommy feeding Chubbs.

The dim sum was fabulous, as usual, and so were the noodle dishes, even though the seasoning wasn't so spot on. The rice noodles were too bland, and the duck ee-fu noodles were too salty :( But the redeeming factor was that the texture and consistency of the noodles were flawless. There was only one bad in the meal. The Peking duck. Instead of just serving the duck skin in the crepes, the carver left chunks of fat and meat in as well. It was rather awful, and the skin was not crisp at all. Plus, they forgot to serve the all-important cucumber and spring onion strips that accompany the duck crepes. Not good. Lesson learnt... I'll just stick to dim sum when dining there from now on.

Using the foldable umbrella as a walking stick after lunch.

I'll spare you guys my expected blabber about how great it's been, being Chubbs' Mommy for the past 20-months. Reality is... this is a really tough job despite all its perks. Discipline is the biggest issue now, as he's pushing two years old. I understand that they want control, and want to do things their way. I mean, who doesn't? I try to give him autonomy as much as I can. But there are things we don't budge on. Like putting his toys away after he's done playing, eating his meals when it's time to, not playing with electrical appliances, etc. My goal in disciplining is for him to learn to listen and obey, because if he doesn't, he could be putting himself in danger. The other day, he stuck his hand in a fan that was left on when his Tai-Gong was not in the room. I screamed for him to stop what he was doing, and he didn't. I had to dash over and save his fingers. And I have witnessed too many children shrugging off their parents to run across the road with cars fast approaching. These incidents really put a stamp on how important discipline is. Chubbs needs to know how to listen and obey. Right now, we are still figuring out which discipline methods work on Chubbs, and which don't. It's no easy feat and it is truly vexing.

Dear unsuspecting reader, I'm sorry you had to endure this outpouring of motherhood trouble. But it's not all that awful. Chubbs is getting more adorable and much cheekier each day. He has taken a firm interest in singing and in particular, listening to Andrea Bocelli. I was telling my friend, S, this story when a few days back... It started a few months ago, when we played him a clip of Bocelli singing a lullaby to Elmo. And then we showed him the recording of a concert where Bocelli sang "Con te Partiro" with Sarah Brightman. He sat transfixed; Chubbs was hooked from that point on. He makes me sing the tune to him, while playing the piano too many times a day, and he has to watch the clip at least once before he sleeps every night. He recognises Bocelli's name too, and will "hold a mic" and sing at the mere mention him.

I love you, my little Chubbs. Thank you for each day that you tell me, "Bah-bu Mommy."

Soba So Good

Chubbs takes a bowlful of puffed, organic whole grain buckwheat with fresh milk and fruit for breakfast almost every morning. It's so good for the body; everybody should eat more of this stuff! He loves it, and I love that he loves it. So it was little wonder that he enjoyed some soba noodles for snack today, as Fuzzy and I were pigging out on sweet treats.

When we think of soba, we instantly think of Shimbashi Soba at Paragon. Freshly hand-made, these pale green/ grey strands of noodles are slurpilicious! Chubbs loves watching the chef hand-roll and cut the soba noodles on a marble board every time we walk pass. I frequent this joint for their very reasonable dessert and coffee tea-time sets, but since Chubbs didn't have much for lunch today, we ordered him a kid's bowl of cold soba noodles, so that he could have something more substantial than the vanilla ice-cream he was pecking from my bowl.

It took him a little while to get used to the texture of the noodles, and how to chew it properly. But he got the hang of it, and had a lot of fun eating with his hands, and slurping up stray strands from the sides of his mouth like a pro.

No noodle managed to escape the mighty grasp.

Smiling with his mouth full.

Snapshots From the Weekend

This past weekend was a rare, relaxing one. We definitely need more of these!

Playing with Jenga blocks while waiting for our favourite waffles to be served; Chubbs easily devours half a waffle.

Happily twirling a branch around while Daddy was doing the hard work of flying the kite.

Making sure the ladybug's eye wasn't hurt from landing in the dirt.

Our kite soaring high amidst the sun's glorious rays.

With Por-por at a BBQ dinner buffet.

Playing with Gong-gong.