Avocado

I eat avocado almost everyday. I mix it with salsa as a dip/ roast chicken in a salad/ boiled egg and capers (the best sandwich filling!)/ tuna and pickled onions with toast/ in a smoothie with banana and soy milk, etc etc etc. It was the food that I was most eager for Mae to try because it is so nutrient-rich, packed with potassium and good fat. The creamy texture also makes it an ideal weaning food for babies. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dearth of good avocadoes in Singapore at the moment. Unlike just a month or two ago, I just can't get any proper, creamy ones anymore. I was throwing hissy fits everyday, cutting into lousy, plastic-ky-fleshed avocadoes that had to be thrown away. And I hate throwing food away!!!

Mae finally got lucky with one that I paid good money for. I passed it through a sieve, and mixed in some breastmilk before serving it to her, to ensure it was extra smooth. But of course, going by how things have been playing out these days, Mae didn't like it the first few times she had it :( Boo me. But I pressed on, and she seems a lot more tolerant of it these days. I'll give her small amounts often, till she gets used to the taste and texture, and hopefully, she soon love it as much as I do.

Playing happily after her avocado and rice cereal breakfast.

Will Require Dusting

So Chubbs is set to head back to school tomorrow, after a month of staying home. He was down with a serious case of bronchitis, missing three weeks of school, and then school was closed for a week when HFMD hit bad. His uniform and socks have been hanging untouched, collecting dust. I think he is truly excited about going back to school, and I can't wait for him to tell me all about what happens in class tomorrow.

It's been a tiring month for us, managing two very sick kids, bringing them non-stop to the p.d. and spending more than $1000 between the two of them, submitting MBA applications, on top of the daily goings on. Mae's getting sicker by the day, and now coughs endlessly; even in her sleep. Which means neither her nor I have been getting proper rest. She's on four different kinds of medicines now, and still shows no sign of recovery. We'll need to bring her in again tomorrow, and I suspect that a course of anti-biotics will be necessary. Poor girl.

Tickling Mae's armpit while having breakfast.

Mae trying to return the favour.

Tempting the little girl with a piece of cheese.

Playing together in her "house".

Watching kor-kor's every move.

Squishing her.

Papaya

Mae's extremely constipated. She hasn't gone in more than three days, and screams in pain every time she needs to pass even a little bit out. And she has this chesty, phlemgy cough that won't go away. I haven't slept in a week because she's waking herself up, coughing every other minute, and I have had to hold her upright, all night. It hasn't been fun. We brought her in to the clinic this morning for more medication and some suppositories, and the p.d. suggested some papaya to make the transition to semi-solids easier on her.

It was a really sweet Hawaiian papaya that I bought her, and I thought she'd love it to bits. But somehow, she prefers her bland, glue-like rice cereal! She barely tolerated the bright orange papaya puree, and labored to finish her portion. I remember Chubbs loved his rice cereal more than anything else too. I guess tasteless foods rule!

Purple Sweet Potatoes

Chubbs and I were having some of these gorgeously purple sweet potatoes for breakfast today, when I thought, why not let Mae have a taste of it? Sweet potatoes are packed with vitamins and fibre, and these purple ones have added anti-oxidents. So I mashed some up, mixed a little breast milk to thin the puree out, and she liked it. She ate a good tablespoonful of it, on top of her brown rice cereal, and was a purple-y mess. But the mistake that I made was that the puree wasn't smooth enough. Through the bites, she looked like she was struggling with the texture a bit. I ought to have strained it to make it silkier for her. I feel like a rookie mom again, since it was more than three years ago that I went through the weaning process for Chubbs.

Brown Rice Cereal

The little bug got her chompers on some yummy brown rice cereal and breast milk mix as part of breakfast today. I put off weaning her for a while because she was quite sick. Even though she is still very phlegmy and coughing, her nasal congestion has cleared a little, and I think she can manage a taste of semi-solids.

She loved her cereal! Although I'm sure all 6-month olds will, having had nothing but breast milk eight meals a day, for six months straight. She literally grabbed the spoon and bowl from my hands, almost spilling the contents. And she lunged greedily at every bite that was brought near her mouth. Most of the cereal ended up on her bib the first try, but I think she got the hang of it when I gave her some more in the evening. She gulped down most of her food. Good girl.

Chubbs helped to feed her!

Happy (Piggy) in the Pen

She Sweetly Sleeps