Bento post #114 – #117

My younger sister, who has just shifted to a house several doors away from me was telling me about how her son's teacher told her that he's a picky eater, that he sometimes doesn't take the food prepared by the kindy. And the kindy actually prepares quite scrumptious food, alternating between porridge, fried noodles, bread, etc. So I volunteered to pack food for him too, on days when I pack for Yiu Yiu.

So with the little extra motivation, last week I did a little better – packed four out of five days :-)

Fried rice and butterfly shaped guava


Hard boiled egg in the shape of a fish (can you tell that it's a fish from the photo? haha), meat floss bread roll and grapes


Fish fingers with grapes


Heart shaped cheesy sausage, meat floss bread roll and grapes


Yiu Yiu seems to be eating her bento better. Most days, she would actually finish at least half the food during her 15-min break time, and the rest at babysitter's house. That's a huge improvement from last year, when her bento box would come home almost untouched. If she continues eating this way, I'll be a very happy mum.

Bento post #108 – #113

Yiu Yiu started her 2nd year kindy on January 11, the second week of the year. The timing is rather odd coz she's now a senior…haha. The first week of school was only attended by newbies as the kindy needed extra teachers to help the new students familiarize themselves with the school.

Anyway, she's been schooling for three weeks now, and I've resumed packing food for her, and that means waking up at 6.20am daily – barely enough time for me to prepare the bentos, nurse Yan Yan and tandem pump, wake Yiu Yiu up and get her ready for school, before rushing out the door by 8am. On the days that I woke up late or was rushing, she'd just go to school with some boxed cereals or nothing at all.

Anyway, here' what's I prepared for her in the first two weeks.

Pan fried chicken drummet with banana muffin and guava

Penne with bolognese sauce and checkered apples

Chicken nuggets with potota wedges, and apples. I was late on this day so I just peeled the skin off the apple instead of carving out the checkered skin.

Pan fried chicken drummet (again) with guava

Chocolate flavoured mantou with meatballs and pears cut into the shape of butterfly

Grilled cheesy sausage wrapped in roti canai and watermelon

Yan Yan – 6th month update

When we visited the paediatrician early this month for her 5th month jabs, her vital stats were as follows: weight 7.2 kg, length 68.9 cm and head circumference 42 cm.

She hasn't mastered the skills for crawling yet but she's been getting herself around over the last few weeks by creeping like a caterpillar – from a position of being on all fours with her body parallel to the floor, she would move her hands forward (thus extending her body and lunging forward), before dragging her feet forward. When lying on her stomach, she can also push her body up with her arms into a semi-sitting position, though she can't sit just yet.

She still puts everything that she grabs into her mouth, so I'm limiting the toys that I leave around her, and try to keep them clean. She didn’t like the teething ring previously, coz she can't get a good grip of it and it keeps falling off. But since she's getting better at holding smaller things in her hands, she's quite happy gnawing on it now.

Emotionally, she's starting to show her preference for me compared to hubby. Even when hubby carries her, she needs me to be in her view. Several times, as I move from the living room to the kitchen, her eyes would be trained on me and as I moved out of her sight, she'd purse her lips, and start to cry. She used to be extremely well behaved in the car but has started to wail on our daily journey home. Sometimes, she'd quiet down when her che-che makes funny faces/noises to her but sometimes, nothing seems to work to calm her down. Once it got so bad that I had to stop my car mid-way and carried her out from the car to pacify her.

She had her first taste of solid several days before turning 6 months. We were having watermelon and she kept eyeing the fruit so we let her suck on a small piece.

I started her on organic rice cereal last Saturday and she loved it. She eagerly opened her mouth and would shout out loud when I drew the spoon away to take another scoop. So impatient…haha!!

It's yummy, mummy.

Do you want a bite, too?

She's still taking only one solid meal daily but I'll be asking the babysitter to increase to two feeds. She's still on full breastmilk, and it's getting difficult to nurse her now as the little busybody would unlatch and turn her head towards any noise.

She loves to babble, and can sometime babbles non-stop, and her che-che would say that she's practicing her voice :-) She's showing an extreme curiosity towards computer. Whenever I have the laptop on, or whenever her che-che watches DVD on the laptop, she would never fail to creep over and press the keypads, much to the annoyance of her che-che.

Madurodam

Since my group had about eight hours transit in Amsterdam on the way to Montreal, we made a quick trip to Madurodam in Den Haag (The Hague). It took us just 30-minutes by train to reach Den Haag, followed by a short tram ride to its main entrance. Madurodam is a tourist attraction, with miniature models on a 1:25 scale of typical Dutch buildings and famous Dutch landmarks from around the country.

Main entrance of Madurodam

Cheese market

Tulip garden

Open air concert

Schipol Airport, Amsterdam

The famous Erasmus Bridge (Erasmusburg) in Rotterdam

We made it back in good time to the airport, grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the terminal for our onwards flight to Montreal.

Montreal – Parc du Mont-Royal

Montreal got its name from the hill that rises behind the spires of downtown office towers, affectionately known to Montrealers as "The Mountain" or "Mont-Real". The hill was made into a public park according to plans by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York's Central Park, with a broad pedestrian only road and smaller footpaths for strollers, joggers, cyclists, and in-line skaters.

There are several routes to reach the top of the hill – the quickest and most strenuous approach, which I took, was taking the steep sets of stairs that go directly to the Chalet du Mont-Royal and its lookout. The chalet was constructed from 1931 to 1932 and has been used over the years for receptions, concerts, and various other events. At the front terrace, the beautiful panaroma of the city beneath made the climb all worthwhile.

The steep set of stairs

Skyline of downtown Montreal

About 10 minutes walk from the chalet is the Croix du Mont-Royal. Legend has it that a wooden cross was erected here in 1643 after the young colony survived a flood threat. The present steel cross, installed in 1924, is lit at night and visible from all over the city.

Montreal – Stade Olympique & surroundings

The Stade Olympique (Olympic Stadium) was built for the Montreal Olympics in 1976. It now houses five indoor swimming pools which are open to the public. The stadium has a 175m inclined tower at a 45-degree angle, and a funicular ferries visitors to the observation deck where expansive views of the city and the neighboring Laurentian mountains can be seen.

Biodôme de Montréal (foreground) and Stade Olympique tower (background)

Views of the city from the observation deck

Next to the Stade Olympique is Biodôme de Montréal. Originally a velodrome for cycling track for the 1976 Olympics, it is now a tourist attraction with its unique replication of four ecosystems – a tropical rainforest, a Laurentian forest, the St. Lawrence marine system, and a polar environment. I got excited at the polar environment section coz I saw these:

Birds and golden lion tamarin monkey in the tropical rainforest ecosystem

St. Lawrence marine ecosystem

Across the road from the Stade Olympique is Jardin Botanique (Botanical Garden), spread over 75 hectares. Due to time constraints, I didn't really explore the area which has ten large conservatory greenhouses, Chinese and Japanese gardens, an Insectarium and Butterfly House.

Can't get enough of the beautiful colours of fall

Montreal – Vieux Montreal (Part 2)

Marché Bonsecours (Bonsecours Market), completed in 1847 evolved from being the Parliament of United Canada, then as the City Hall, later becoming the central market, a music recital hall, and finally the home of the municipality's housing and planning offices. It is more of a retail centre now, but is also used for exhibitions and musical performances.

Marguerite Bourgeoys, a nun and teacher who was made a saint in 1982, founded the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (Sailors' Church). It is named as such because many seamen come to worship here, while sailors saved at sea made pilgrimages to the church to give thanks. A museum within tells the story of Bourgeoys' life, and beautiful views of the port and Vieux Montreal can be seen from the top of its tower.

Snapshots of the interior

Views from atop the tower

Vieille Douane (Old Customs House) was erected from 1836 to 1838. One side of the building faces Place Royale, the first public square in the 17th-century settlement of Ville-Marie (Montréal). It's where Europeans and Amerindians used to come to trade.

Opposite Vieille Douane is Pointe-à-Callière, the original site where Ville-Marie (Montreal) was founded in 1642. It now houses the impressive Museum of Archaeology and History, where ruins of the ancient city can be seen. The museum is connected to Vieille Douane via an underground connection.

My last stop was Vieux-Port (Old Port), Montréal's historic commercial wharves which have been reborn as a waterfront park frequented by cyclists, in-line skaters, joggers, strollers, and picnickers.