Raelynn's molars

Mummy has been quite dense, I didn't know RL already has 4 pre-molars out, though she has bitten me HARD twice so far. Her upper ones are fully erupted while her bottom premolar are partially erupted.

But I have an mitigating factor, the reason why I didn't notice is also because her canines (aka sharp teeth) have not erupted for her upper teeth at all and only partially erupted for her bottom canines. so, I'm surprised that she already has her pre molars.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, I think LIFE is fair. she loves to eat so she gets her pre molars first so that she can chew and grind. RaeAnne definitely got her canines first. haha. :)

I want 2 mummies...

Just now, when putting RaeAnne to sleep, she told me she wants 2 mummies. So, I ask her who she wants to be her other mummy secretly wondering which mummy friend she likes.

But she said 我要妈咪给我糖吃 (I want a mummy who gives me sweets).

So, I reminded her: "But I also give you sweets what, remember? I gave you milk sweets, ribena sweets, gummy bear sweets."

Her reply: 我不要吃药吃糖嘛。

Obviously, she has seen through our tricks of offering her sweets only when we have to give her med. -_-

No rabbit baby :(

May is coming to an end, and it's final. I won't ever have a rabbit baby (like myself). I have been harbouring hopes since Nov10 but now, I've officially missed the boat for this horoscope cycle (no thanks to the car accident which caused me to recuperate for 3 months due to spinal fractures, delaying my real estate sales career and hubby who thinks '2 is enough'). For those who dun know, the chinese horoscope repeats itself every 12 yrs and I'll definitely be too old for the next horoscope cycle at 48. :P

RaeAnne has been very sweet though. She heard me lamenting so often that I won't have a rabbit baby (usu triggered when I see a pregnant woman). Now, she will console me: 'Mummy, next time, 我长大了, I 'dang dang da dang' ('here comes the bride' march in music), I give you a rabbit baby. 我的Rabbit baby 很乖的, 你可以抱抱她.'

Oh well, better than nothing, hope she remembers her promise n marry early. Then I can look forward to having a rabbit baby grandkid to look after. :)

First Parent Teachers Conference at RaeAnne's CC

Finally, after hearing friends talk about PTC for 2 yrs (most of their kids r in childcare), hubby and I had our first PTC for RaeAnne. It's my first but definitely not hubby's though it's the first time he is there as a parent (& not a teacher).

We made the mistake of bringing RaeAnne with us. Apparently, that's not advisable cos the teacher cannot speak freely if she has anything 'bad' to share about the student as it may spoil the teacher-child relationship in future.

Luckily for us, Teacher Irene and 汪老师 did not have anything bad to say about RaeAnne. PHEW! I was so worried to hear about complaints about her bad temper and violent streaks which she displays at home.

The teachers assured me that she is a very good girl in class, she pays attention and is good at finishing her classwork on her own without further prompting once instructions have been given by the teacher.

Her only 'flaw' is that she is quiet (shy?) and not willing to speak up in class even when the teacher asks her a question. So it's a no-brainer that Speech & Drama was the answer Teacher Irene gave when I asked what kind of enrichment activities she would recommend for RA. She also mentioned that RA likes colouring so Arts is also a possibility. The nearby Global Arts Centre at the CC only accepts kids above 4yrs old.

I'll be on a lookout for speech & drama classes for tots but today, we just rejoined the Yamaha Music Wonderland class for another 1.5 months cos RA still mentions the music class once in a while and when I asked her if she still wants to go to Ms Chan's class, she said yes. No more leisurely Sat mornings. Dun know how we can still squeeze in S&D class unless we go for weekdays or June Hols intensive 1 week programes. Her CC has weekly S&D by an external vendor but it only starts at Nursery class ie. 4 yrs old so she will still need to wait for another 7 months. :P

We were given a CD of a powerpoint presentation of what she does in school (mainly pics) and I am so proud of our gal today. :)

Updates

It's been many days since I updated the blog after my Real Estate Sale course started on 9 May. My course is daily from 10-1pm and I need to make notes after I come back cos my exams will be straight after my HK holidays in June. What a great timing! I can't afford to fail since the exam fee is almost $250 so got to be hardworking and bring my notes to HK to study. ;/

The gals are still sick from cough/runny, after 3 visits to the GP. They have been prescribed a stronger antibiotics (augmentin) this time. RaeAnne is better but Mei Mei is still having bad runny nose n phelgmy cough, yesterday she was still vomitting at bedtime(twice in fact, first her milk then her porridge dinner) and now loose stools from augmentin. Our usual PD is away on holidays and will only be back on 22 May. Hope Mei Mei gets well soon. So heart pain to see her suffer. :(

Realise that Mei Mei can actually say quite a few words but she's not good at addressing us. This week, I heard her say Bear Bear, Wet Wet, dirty, :)

The gals are sick again :(

Sigh, RaeAnne has been running a fever for 2 days. She got an infection from her cough which started on Wed. So sian that she is always sick. Dun know if it's of the crazy hot & cold weather, cos ILs let her eat chocs (kit kat) at their house since I started my class or because there are sick classmates passing the bug. Probably all of the above. :P

Her bug spread to Mei Mei so I had to bring both kids (myself included) to see the GP on sat morning. Weekend burnt cos she refused to eat lunch nor milk on Sat, only grazed on some udon soup (brought her to Sakae sushi to whet her appetite) finally drank some milk on early Sun morning.

上汤苋菜

Had this dish at Crystal jade on Sat so decided to try cookiing it cos I still have a carton of 皮蛋安醇蛋 bought from Taiwan (and expiring by end of May 11 :P). Follow recipe from Noob cook.

Heat oil and fry a handful of whitebait (银鱼) until crispy. Set aside.
Fry the garlic (2 crushed cloves) until fragrant.
Add in the local spinach and fry until leaves are wilted.
Add 2 or 3 ladles of seafood soup (from yesterday's dinner but can follow the recipe which uses soup with abalone sauce), chopped century egg and chopped salted egg yolk and soaked wolfberries. Add hua diao wine from the side of the wok when the soup is boiling and simmering.
Switch off the flame then sprinkle the fried whitebait.

Verdict
The dish tastes quite nice considering it's my first attempt. But it can be improved cos 1) I forgot to take the white bait out so they are not crispy, 2) Didn't soak the wolfberries long enough so it had a bit of sourish taste 3) Added too much hua diao wine so the taste is a bit strong. :P

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to Waipo, Nai nai and of course myself.

Had dinner with my parents at Crystal jade yesterday and bought a cake for MIL. For our own celebration, hubby got me a stalk of red rose and a silver chain from Perlinni Silver. RaeAnne gave me a laminated handmade card with her finger prints. Kudos to the CC teachers for helping her with the rest of the card. The touching thing is that when I picked her up on fri, she immediately opened her bag to take out the card to give it to me. Even Teacher Irene commented, wa, she remembers. :)

Today, we went to try Trattoria Italian Kitchen at 313 Somerset, a place I wanted to try for a long time. I seldom get to eat Italian food cos the kids dun fancy cheesy stuff so I hardly cook it at home and we dun dine out with the kids at Italian restaurants either. We ordered the Trattoria Salad with chinese pears which was very good, the Mother's Day special - Lobster pasta aragosta which was good, but the aglio olio was so so, a sparkling fruit juice drink and a cappucino. Bill was $70+, reasonable cos the servings are quite big. We were stuffed. :)

Bacon cheese stuffed mushrooms

Mini portabello mushrooms were on offer at NTUC today so I bought a pack. Got inspired to make stuffed mushrooms for supper. So I googled for recipes there and then (ah... the convenience of an iphone). Bought the back bacon (less sinful than the streaky bacon though I love them too) since I already have cheese and onions at home.

Ingredients
1. 8 mini portabello mushrooms
2. 5 small shallots*
3. 6 pieces of Back bacon (prepacked from NTUC)
4. Chopped spring onions (extra from fridge, can omit)
5. 1 handful of pizza plus cheese (from NTUC)

Recipe (modified from online)
1. Prebake the oven (mine is microwave oven cum oven) at 250 deg.
2. Remove mushroom stems from portabellos, and chop coarsely.
3. Chop shallots (small red onions) coarsely.
4. Chop 6 pieces of bacon into 1 cm squares.
5. Fry the onions with some butter (I use salted so no need to add any seasoning), add in the chopped mushrooms stems then the bacon.
7. Stir in some chopped spring onions (extra in the fridge)
8. Stir in a handful of pizza plus cheese (from ntuc) until the mixture is a bit sticky.
9. Turn off the stove.
10. Scoop the cooked mixture onto the mushroom caps, sprinkle more cheese on top of each mushroom cap.
11. Grease a baking tin/pan with butter.
12. Bake them for 10-15 mins open faced until cheese has melted and looks golden brown.

Verdict
Hubby gave it a 3.5 out of 5 stars cos he said no water chestnut (duh, think he watched too much 三菜一汤) and not enough cheese on top (he sprinkled them on himself, hee). I though we baked for too long cos the mushrooms were oozing but he didn't mind the brown juices from the mushrooms cos he liked them juicy. Oh well, once I start on my RES course, dun think I'll be so free to make supper other than the usual instant noodles. Hope that will make him more appreciative. ;)

* I used this cos I ran out of yellow/white onions. Shallots have a distinctive aroma and tend to 抢味 from the portabello. Think Australian white onions will definitely be more complementary and sweeter in taste but they are pretty steep compared to other onions. Cos everytime, I get it weighed at the NTUC weighing counter, the friendly aunty never fails to warn me 'this onion more expensive, because it's from Australia'. hee)

新的哪有旧的好

At least for Mei Mei, the old bed may be better. Since we switched her to Cheh Cheh's toddler bed on Sat night, she climbed down to sleep with the maid several times. Then, on Sun night, she climbed down but I caught her in action and carried her up. for the next few nights, she didn't climb down but started waking up to cry or make sounds in her sleep.

Tonight, (after 5 nights) we are doing a new expt by putting her back on her old cot bed. We removed just 1 side and flushed her bed with the queen sofa bed so that if she decides to climb out of her cot, she will just climb onto the sofa bed instead. If she sleeps well tonight, maybe it means that she needs the 'security' of her cot bed rails (she likes being a prisoner? :P)

Today, I went for my first job interview in 10 yrs. Even went for a hair colour and hair cut to look more presentable. The interviewers were 15 mins late to meet me cos they were too enamoured with the previous candidate. I heard lots of laughter while I was walking up and down the corridor outside the staff meeting room. No, there were no chairs, no reception area, nothing. I felt awkward holding my portfolio in my suit and heels as hordes of students walked past me. :P Anyway, I didn't harbour high hopes for this job. It was something I wanted to try long ago but maybe timing is also not good now since I'm going to embark on my real estate option first. I'll know in 1 week's time if they dun call anyway. :P

Tonight, we were very late in picking RaeAnne from MIL house (950pm) cos our dear Mei Mei broke the handle of my specs. It's my fault for being complacent and over indulgent with Mei mei cos she has asked for my specs before to help me wear them but she has never broken it before. Hubby was not very sympathetic cos I already allowed RaeAnne to break one pair of my specs in 2009. Sigh, so, we had to rush to Tampines interchange to get my specs fixed. Cos I'm blind as a bat without my specs. Plus my small, dry eyes make it uncomfortable for me to wear contact lens. End up going to the wrong optical shop but at least they took just 15 mins to resize the lens to fit into the new specs. While waiting, we had early supper of oyster omelette and ice kachang at the food court. Total damage for the frames only: $70.

Reminder to self: Go for lasik once I have a decent pay check. :P

Raelynn is 17 months old! :)

Measured her today and her height is 78cm, not that short after all. ;) As for weight and photo, still waiting for Daddy dearest to fulfil his end of the promise. ;P

Finally in the last week, I heard her call Mamee, Mamee, Mamee quite often. Other than that, in terms of speech devt, slight improvement, she can say wet wet (when the floor is wet) and sing the 'twinkle twinkle little star' quite well. She will make ooh ooh ooh sound to me when she wants me to play the '坐火车' youtube video song from my iphone. As for animals, other than bird bird and dog dog and duck duck which she recognises, all other animals are randomly categorised by her as one of the three. :P

She still have only 8 visible teeth though she has been gnawing on everything for the longest time. Wonder if she could be sprouting molars instead? :PShe can understand instructions quite well but she is starting to throw tantrums more often when she doesn't get what she wants. Exact imitation of cheh Cheh, screaming and stamping her feet. Dejavu! :P

She makes her requests known by gesturing a lot though, putting her index finger into her mouth and moving it around to 'ask' me to fetch her toothbrush and toothpaste. She loves to help me with my daily activities. Eg. when she sees me in the morning without my specs (usually half stoned all thanks to Cheh Cheh who can find 1001 reason to wake up at night to 'ka cheow' me), she will run to my bedside and fetch my specs and twist it out of shape so I have to quickly grab it from her and wear it. If she sees me with my toothbrush in the morning (still half stoned), she will make lots of ahh ahh ahh sounds until I bend down and let her brush my teeth. Got to guide her cos her hands really don't have much strength to do the brushing action yet. If she sees me with a cup of water or coffee or milo, she will take my cup and try and feed me water. Otherwise, she will make herself 'useful' by stirring my spoon even though I will exclaim 'hot hot, don't touch'. With such a sweet loving nature, it's not a surprise that I love her to bits (though I can only spend pockets of time with her when Cheh Cheh is not dominating my time) :P

Poor Mei Mei is still sick, so is mummy who is nursing a sore throat from nasal drip (already finished our antibiotics). Between the two of us, we must have cross infected RA cos she started coughing again tonight. sigh, the whole cough/cold bug has been making its rounds in our family since 31 Mar and it's still not ended. :P

Bought Hungry Frog (a version of our childhood toy 'Hungry, Hungry Hippo') and all of us had fun playing it. It was easy to play and RaeAnne managed to win the game with 12 balls. :) Just need to make sure that the balls are kept properly so that no chance of Mei mei swallowing them. :P

P.S. weighed her today (wed) and she is still 10.2 kg. Poor gal's appetite hasn't been good for the last 2 weeks. :P Daddy finally took a photo too.