Karen's first haircut.... by me!

Took a couple of minutes to blog about Karen. She’s certainly growing up fast. It makes us realize how quickly time flies when you are occupied and kept busy caring for a little being. She’s crawling now and is constantly attempting to stand without help. I had to change her to a pull-up nappy because she won’t stay still long enough for us to change her. I asked Tony (age 64) at work, how did they do it back then? He said, once they are pricked by the nappy pin ONCE, they learnt to stay really still when we changed them. LOL… I think children now are so fortunate and pampered.

Last few days, I’ve been attempting to trim her hair. I allow it to grow because she looks so much like a little boy baby that I thought a bit of hair will make some difference. However, it’s getting long and messy (and she still looks like a boy). First try on her fringe and the straight line across makes her look really silly. So I did another trim last night. On the bright side, this 2^nd trim is a little better than the last, on the negative side, I’ll have to vacuum my room this weekend because I trim her hair while she’s playing on our bed. Sigh…

Before trimming her hair

After the first attempt....

The final result after having lots of hair on my bed.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Karen on the trip back to Singapore

The 10 hours flight wasn’t as bad as we imagine it to be. The seats were separated into columns of 3. On the flight to Singapore, I was assigned a seat alone where the bassinet was, while Andrew and my parents took the 3 seats behind me. Another kiwi couple was seated next to us with their one year old toddler girl.

At 5 month plus, Karen wasn’t crawling yet and all she wanted was to be carried. I kept her close, pat her to sleep in my arms and the bassinet was mainly use to hold all her stuffs. I doubt she spent more than 2 hours in that bassinet. However, I won’t be able to do without it, it was really handy having her bibs, toys, and bottles within arm reach inside the bassinet.

It was also fortunate that Karen was distracted by the toddler next to us. She would spend her time in the plane just observing what the one year old was up to. The tod’s parent however wasn’t having an easy time. There was one time when their kid burst into tears refusing to nap even though she was exhausted. Her dad cuddled her in his arm in the seat next to me and Karen. While the toddler was waving her arms around screaming, Karen reaches out and touched her hand. The tod immediately stopped crying and tries to touch Karen’s hand. They keep fingering each other which were really sweet to see. All the fingering and hand touching calms the tod down and she eventually fell asleep. By then Karen starts fussing a little and I immediately walk her around the cabin which promptly sets her sleeping too.

About the toddler , her dad and mom are both New Zealander and she’s born oversea. They brought her back to NZ for a visit and were on the way back to England. On the other hand, Karen’s born in NZ and was on the way to visit Singapore. Talk about irony.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Another Video update on Karen

Dear SG,

It's a new beginning and it's going to be a wonderful year ahead. We know it because we are making it so. Here's to share the latest video of Karen to our friends and families. :)

Baby speaking


Trying to speak and communicate. It's late at night and way past her bedtime but we just got back from the mall and she won't sleep. But she wanna talk.


First food


Karen taking her first food. Rice cereals.


Sit ups


Karen doing her sit ups.


Silly Antics


Karen loves to put something on her face then she would try to kick it off. The problem is, she looks like she is suffocating whenever she did that. Usually we'll remove the article on her face and she will smile when we did that. And then she will do it again....


Karen and her stuff toy cow


Karen playing with her stuff toy cow. She's teething now and since the only thing she could reach of the cow is its hoof, she tries to put that into her mouth. We thought it's time to teach her to be gentle with animals... :p

with love from NZ,
J

Interaction

You know how we adults would repeat an action if it makes the baby laugh, what if the baby could do the same for us?

2 days ago, I put Karen’s back to my front and sit her down to play on our bed. She would reach forward to grab her toy and put it in her mouth (as usual). She was able to sit up by herself now but would still lose her balance now and then so it’s important we watch her closely.

Since I just got back from work and was exhausted, I lay down across the pillow just to observe her from behind.

Then she decided to flip backward and her head hit me hard on my tummy as I was sheltering her from the back. In case she was frightened by the fall, I laugh to settle her down. She had this big grin when I laugh and decided to sit upright again. Then out of the blue, she flipped backward once more and immediately look up at me. I was puzzled so I did a little laugh again. Guess what, she grins and struggle upright, then fell backward, and look up at me AGAIN. And it dawn on me that she was playing with me, trying to make me laugh! Aww….

We did that repeatedly for 5 mins, by then she was laughing along with me. I shouted for Andrew to come look and of course, she stopped and was distracted. Wish I had it video captured but that’s the problem with a baby, they stopped as soon as the camera comes up. Any way, this will be one wonderful memory I will always have, Happy 2009 everyone.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

A familiar SG/MY taste in NZ

Dear SG,

Andrew found an article on Singapore and Malaysia food today. I thought I will share it with you.

News Article from Herald

Wake up taste buds with an exotic brunch surprise

One of the most amazing things about immigration is the contribution of ethnically diverse people to New Zealand's food culture.

While it is easy enough to pop into ethnic restaurants, the availability of ingredients at speciality grocery shops started by these immigrants makes it just as simple to bring these exotic flavours to the home kitchen.

This summer, the Herald takes you on a world brunch tour in Auckland - and for those prepared to think outside the lunch box and barbecue, how to make them at home or at your holiday bach.

Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

SINGAPORE/MALAYSIA: KAYA AND TOAST

Like Kiwis, toast, egg and coffee is a favourite for many Singaporeans and Malaysians - but they do not take them the way most Kiwis do.

The bread is grilled and instead of jam or marmalade, the slices are spread with slippery butter and rich kaya - pandan-flavoured coconut jam, sweetened with cane sugar.

The eggs are not fried, but half boiled - put into hot water just long enough for the clear bits of the egg to turn white and to have the yolk remain soft and runny - eaten with soya sauce and pepper.

Malaysian coffee - much thicker and more aromatic than your average latte - is also sweetened with condensed milk and not sugar, and to cool it, some would even pour it on to a saucer before slurping it from there.

WHERE TO TRY IT

To sample this brunch meal at a cafe, head to Kaya + Toast on Queen St, run by Vincent Chan who has modelled his cafe after the kopitiam (coffee shop) in his Malaysian hometown.

A kaya toast set, comprising two thick slices of kaya toast, two half boiled eggs and a cup of Malaysian coffee, costs $8.50.

MAKE YOUR OWN

Ingredients: Toast bread, butter and kaya jam (available at most Asian grocery shops).

Directions: Spread the kaya and butter on to the bread before putting it under the grill or in the oven. Ready when butter starts oozing. Malaysian coffee is available in instant packets at Asian shops.



In case you are wondering, no we haven't try the Kaya toast from this shop. We bought Kaya from the local asian store and made our own toast. The best thing about Kaya toast in New Zealand, the butter are fantastic.



with love from NZ,

J

Sleeping through the night

Finally! Oh well, I better not be too optimistic. The good news is that she has finally slept through the night since last friday. Bad news is that she still cries and wails but she does go right back to sleep after a while. Even if we try to feed her when she cries, she would just drink around 10ml of milk and falls asleep. This just shows that she doesn't need the milk, just the comfort of sucking.

We nearly achieve that when she was around 3 months old, she had around 6 hours of sleep without waking up. Then her gum started hurting and she was back to waking up every 3 hourly no matter how much we tries to feed her during the day or get her back on track again.

I certainly hope this lasts. She certainly looks a lot happier waking up in the morning after a good night rest. Meanwhile I still wake up when she cries or stirs a little and as usual will take me a while to fall back to sleep again. So if you see me online at the wee hour of the morning, don't be offended if I say hi and suddenly disappear. I probably had fallen asleep with the laptop on again. ;)

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

What?! No Hum!??

Dear SG,

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing. Life is split between my interesting career in the day and mommy duties at night. I’m even starting to miss Facebook because I no longer had the luxury of going through my list of friends and checking them out for updates. (Which means, I haven’t been able to check your blog for updates too. I’m sorry…)

It’s 3am in the morning and I was looking through some photos Andrew took with his camera phone. Then I came upon this and found my topic of the day. Cockles… (grin)

My dear SG friends, although NZ is surrounded by the sea, our favorite cockles (in dialect "See Hum") are not available here! They do have cockles of a different variety but it doesn’t taste the same. The kiwi cockles doesn’t have that strong cockle taste we are used to. Rather, it’s pretty mild and would probably suits those SG-ians who likes seafood but dislike “Hum”. ;) The flesh are white instead of red which means it is less “bloody” during consumption. Sigh… “char kway teow” just isn’t the same without our bloody “hum”.


Our beloved SG dish: Blood Cockles (Scientific Name: Anadara Granosa)
Photo from www.rasamalaysia.com


Yummy SG favorite: Char Kway Teow
Photo from ieatishootipost.sg


Cockle sign on a kiwi beach

with love from NZ,
J

P.S: Yes, if you live near the sea in NZ, you could help yourself to all those fresh cockles or seafood every day. Just remember to check the quota and conditions of that particular beach, some beaches are protected to allow the “seafood” to repopulate again.