A quick one

Last Tuesday, sometimes around lunch time, I was engrossed in some stuff at work when reception buzzed me saying that there's something I need to pick up from out front. While I was walking out I was just trying to figure out what could it be? Could hubz have sent me flowers? Because I just mentioned to him the week before last that it has been ages since he last sent me flowers for no reason. He used to do that ALL the time. When I was pregnant, he even special ordered flowers that doesn't smell cause I couldn't smell any sweet smelling flowers throughout my pregnancy, so much so that we completely stopped buying fresh flowers for the house altogether!

So I walked very slowly to the reception and when I saw the huge basket I couldn't stop smiling. OMG, my sweet sweet hubz. And then of course, the accompanying card.. to quote a friend from work, "he must be the last romantic chinaman alive"! Hahahahahaha.

I know, you must be thinking what a load of bulls that I need to even post flowers my hubz sent me, well, there's another reason for that. Hubz sort of saw this blog and made a passing remark that now it's all about baby, baby, baby when it used to be all about him, all the time. Hehe. My poor little thing. What he did not realise is that I do talk about him although yes, it's true that I write mostly about Nia. So now there's something nice to write about him, I'm doing so.

If you see this post babe, know that I love you so very much!

Easy Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup rice washed and drained
• a knob of butter
• 1 clove garlic, sliced thin
• 1 small onion or shallot, sliced thin
• chicken stock or soup (that was made for babies with no salt whatsoever)
• vegetable of any kind - carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, white radish, peas, broccoli, cauliflower etc.

Method:

Combine all the ingredients in a pan, cook on low heat till rice is cooked through (according to your baby's liking - for younger baby you can cook it longer). If the liquid dry out before rice is cooked, add more soup/ stock or just plain boiled water. Serve warm.

To make cheese risotto, skip the chicken stock or soup, just use plain boiled water. You can even opt to not add the vege (but I think veges should be fed to babies at every meal) and instead add 2 tbsp of mild shredded cheese before the rice is done and stir to combine. No picture for now, but I will take one the next time I make this.

Hazelnut Toffee Pudding

Food for hubz soul ;o))

I know, I don't think this picture does any justice to the delectable sticky sweetness of this pudding - AND- I should've used a plain plate coz that blue flower is distracting! I made it just according to the recipe without cutting out sugar like I usually would, knowing very well that I wouldn't even want to taste this, so for once, I did not hear hubz complaining :oPP Oh, but the smell of it was just delightful, although the wait was quite painful! It took 1 1/2 hrs to steam!

Hmmmm... Anyways, here's the recipe that has been cut into half so that I got only a small pudding, about 5" in diameter on top and around 7" at the base. For full recipe, just double it. If you are toffee lover like my hubz, double or triple the toffee recipe - the stickier the better ... ermmm... at your own risk however

Ingredients for toffee:

• 1/4 block of butter
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (if you do not have lemon, lime (limau nipis) works fine too!)
• 4 tbsp full fat milk

Ingredients for Pudding:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 90g of butter (slightly more than 1/3rd of a block)
• 1/2 cup roasted & chopped hazelnuts

Method:

Prepare toffee by combining all the ingredients in a small pan on low heat and stir until smooth, set aside.

Prepare a heat proof dish for steaming the pudding by greasing it all over, then pour half of the hazelnuts in. Pour half of the prepared toffee over the nuts and swirl it to coat the dish as much as possible. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar till light & fluffy then add egg and beat to combine. Sift flour, baking soda, powder & salt and fold them into the egg mixture, add the lemon juice and mix in the remaining nuts. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish. Cover with baking paper with a pleat in the middle, tie with a kitchen string. Steam for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours till pudding is set.

When the pudding dish is cool enough to handle (erm I didn't wait for it to cool coz hubz was starving!) invert onto a plate and pour the remaining toffee on top and dig in!

Throat Infection

Nia just recovered from a bout of throat infection. She has been refusing to eat since last Wednesday, my aunt took her temperature a couple of times and it seemed normal. When I go home she gets attached to me like a leech and refused to go to anyone else, not even her Daddy. According to my aunt she gulped down a bowl of soup Thursday morning but after that refused to eat anything else. We were all just wondering what was wrong because other than these couple of things, she was her usual self, singing & dancing and running around like she always do. Thursday night however, I was cradling her when I felt her body was warmer than usual, so I took her temperature and it was 38.8°, I was shocked and took it a couple more times and they still read 38.7° then 38. 8°, we hauled her up and took her to the nearest open clinic and begged the girl at the counter to let us see the doctor first as we were so worried that, God forbid, she might get another bout of fits.

Thank God there was none of that this time. Doctor diagnosed her with throat infection which explains why she has been refusing food, it wasn't that she didn't want any, she just had difficulty swallowing them, my poor baby. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics for her throat and suppository for her fever, it was a stronger dosage one called Voltrane (if I'm not mistaken), she inserted the first dosage of Voltrane in the clinic, but after that we only gave Nia PCM (Paracetamol) which is less strong and kept giving her this everytime her temperature rises. We started tepid sponging her till she fell asleep on Thursday night and hubz continued that on Friday while I was at work, as he took the day off because I couldn't. She woke up restless a couple of times at night wanting feed. Last we gave her PCM was Saturday morning about 2.30am.

That Saturday morning was a busy day for us as we had breakfast date with my gf Shaz, near our place at 8ish and we had to pick up hubz grandmother from the train station about 9.30am. Before we left we checked her temperature she seemed to be OK at 37.4° so decided not to give her anymore of the PCM as I wanted to see if her fever will return without continuous meds. As precaution, on the way to the TTDI market, we called up her Paed in D'sara Specialist only to find out that they were closed on that day! Thankfully, though, by evening she seemed to have recovered fully with temperature returning to normal (below 37°) but still has been refusing to eat properly so both hubz and I tried to make her different things on Saturday and Sunday to encourage her to eat.

The whole of yesterday I was scrutinising my poor baby for any signs of rashes or anything unusual as aparently most sicknesses in young children start from simple cold, flu and fever. Her Paed mentioned Roseola Infantum (also known as fake measles) to us before, which usually starts with high fever and on the 3rd day when the fever breaks the child will have rashes breakout on the trunk and head. This can happen to babies between 6 and 24 months old, but most children will get this at an earlier age. Although the rash itself are supposedly harmless and last for only 12 -14 hours, the thought of it makes my heart palpitate! And we're only talking about Roseola, I can not imagine what I'll do when I have to deal with chicken pox etcetera! *Sigh*

Anyways, all's well now, just that my aunt still complains that Nia is refusing to eat anything, if this continues I probably would just take her to see a Paed, regardless and see what the pro has to say.

My Boo

my sleepy "Boo"

the original Boo from Monsters Inc.

This is an unfinished version, i'm still editing the video to take out all the unnecessary background noises and am including a new front view video of her shaking her thang, if you notice all these are from behind, so you can't really see her facial expression. Will put in on here once its done.

OMG, my baby's so talented, where do you think she got it from? Her mama, of course ;oPPPP