Yan Yan – 9th month update

When we visited the paediatrician when Yan Yan was sick recently (in fact, that was the first time she fell sick), she weighed 7.9kg, just a mere 0.7kg gain from her 6th month check-up. I guess she must have lost some weight in that few days due to loss of appetite.

Physically, she can now sit herself down after standing up, and started cruising while holding onto furniture, though still a little unstable. She has mastered the pincer grasp, and can be really sharp in spotting teeny weeny objects on the floor, before crawling to it and picking it up with her thumb and index finger.

Last month, she could open and close her fingers in response to people saying bye-bye, and has now advanced to actually waving her hand. She can also clap to instruction.

She would sometimes babble papa and mama but I don't think she knows what they mean just yet. The first word which she utters with complete understanding is mum-mum. Whenever she sees me holding her porridge, or sees any of us eating, she would say mum-mum and move her mouth to mimic the chewing action, though there's still no sign of teething. She absolutely loves food (and I'm definitely not complaining here), and would always try to reach for food on our plates when we eat. I have to ensure I have something for her (mostly Baby Bites, bread or pau) whenever we eat to keep her occupied and leave us to eat in peace. She takes porridge twice daily, cooked with vegetable and fish.

The Velcro baby in her is probably at its height as she would cry piteously even if I pop into the bathroom for the shortest period to wash my hand. And if someone attempts to carry her when she's in my arms, she would grab my shirt tightly and refuse to let go, as if hanging on for dear life :-)

She loves playing hide-and-seek with her che-che, and her che-che doesn't get tired of hiding underneath the comforter time and again, only to let her mei-mei flip over the comforter and find her there. Both will then end up giggling to no ends. I simply love watching them play.

Bento post #139 – #145

More bentos from this week and last:

A simple fishball with cucumber skewer and checkered apple.

Red bean pau with fried wantan and checkered apple. This was the first time I gave Yiu Yiu home-made fried wantan, and her verdict was, "I don't like it, mummy". Perhaps it had gone soft by her break time and not crunchy any more.

One of the usual staple of chicken nugget with potato wedges, and a tub of tomato ketchup. For fruits, I gave her pieces of pear.

Omelette sushi roll. I had problems rolling the sushi that morning and was sweating all over trying to roll the rice nicely. By the time I was done with the sushi, there wasn't any more time left to cut the apple in a checkered pattern so I just peeled them and cut into pieces.

Red bean pau with breakfast ham rolled up with French beans, carrot and cucumber. At the side was few pieces of pear.

Shell shape pasta in Bolognese sauce, with some grapes.

Cucumber and crab stick sushi, with a cocktail sausage imprinted with fish pattern (which didn't turn out well). Again, I didn't have time to cut the apple in a checkered pattern so I just quickly carved out a star for her.

If you're happy and you know…

I had been really really busy at work (hence the silence in this blog) and couldn’t' spend much time with the girls at night as I pick them up at 9pm most nights. Upon reaching home, it would be a mad rush getting Yiu Yiu to take her vitamin, drink milk, brush teeth and read her a book before putting them to bed at 10pm. One day, hubby picked them up early as he didn't have any appointment/meeting, and when I got home, he told me Yan Yan will demonstrate something to me:

I was really caught by surprise by this. I knew she could clap but this was the first time I saw her clapping when asked to. Another milestone to Yan Yan's belt :-)

Being sick

When Yan Yan woke up last Friday morning, hubby felt that her body was slightly warm but when I measured with an ear thermometer, her temperature was normal. In the evening, babysitter called and said that she woke up from her nap with high fever. We didn't seek medical attention as I thought we can self medicate over the weekend and monitor.

Despite us diligently giving her paracetamol syrup or suppository every six hours, she was pretty much inactive and slept through the weekend. And when she wasn't sleeping, she was cranky and wanted to be carried all the time. She also didn't have much appetite. By Monday morning, she still had fever so we took her to the paediatrician, as I was beginning to worry that it could be something more sinister. The paediatrician gave her a suppository in the clinic as her temperature was hovering around 38.4oC, with the instruction to come back the next day for dengue test should the fever persists.

Luckily her fever broke that afternoon, but yesterday morning, I noticed some rashes on her face and back. Hubby called the paediatrician and he said it should be 假痲 (fake measles). Then I remembered Yiu Yiu experienced this when she was five months old – rashes breaking out after her fever broke, and her paediatrician diagnosed it as roseola. I googled a bit and voila, Yan Yan's symptoms fitted perfectly. By night time when I picked her up, the rashes had spread to practically the whole body.

Though the rashes are still present today, thankfully, her jovial self is beginning to re-emerge.

Can you spot the rashes on her face?

Yiu Yiu on the other hand, has been coughing since last week. Mummy's fault for not giving her the cough syrup diligently. Gotta make sure she gets her medicine on time from today.

Bento post #135 – #138

And these were Yiu Yiu's bentos last week:

Red bean pau (love the soft pink colour of the pau) with fish-shaped hard-boiled egg and grapes. In the pink sauce is some soya sauce to go with the egg. Unfortunately the egg was too small for the mould and the shape didn’t come out nicely.


Pan-fried chicken drummet with star and heart shaped rice onigiri, and some grapes.


Chicken nugget with potato wedges, and a tub of tomato ketchup. At the side are some guava slices in the shape of butterfly.


Bread roll with meat floss, and checkered apples.

Bento post #131 – #134

These were Yiu Yiu's bentos two weeks ago:

Fish ball with cucumber skewers and Mandarin orange slices (yes, I still have Mandarin oranges from CNY in my fridge).


Shell pasta with bolognese sauce, and more Mandarin oranges.


French toast in the shape of chicken (stole the idea from this creative bento mum) and grapes. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that nice as I didn't have time to put in other details. And when I asked Yiu Yiu that evening whether she knew what shape her bread was, she replied "Heart shape". So mission failed. Gotta try it another time :-)


Egg noodles in oyster sauce, and dark and light soya sauce. Added two meatballs for protein. At the side are some grapes.

First trip to the playground

Over the weekend, I took both girls to the playground in our residential area. It was Yan Yan's first trip to the playground and she thoroughly enjoyed herself on the swing.



Her che-che meanwhile, found joy in pushing her mei-mei's swing and didn't get to play much herself on the swing, slide or see-saw.

The two sisters sharing a private joke

It didn't help that the sky had gotten dark with a storm brewing and we had to leave after just 10 minutes there.

One year wiser

I just got back to the office after an appointment with a customer on April Fool's day when the receptionist brought this to me.


No, it wasn't an April Fool's joke – it was sent by hubby for my birthday, which fell during the weekend this year. He also took the effort to book a table at Bijou for the celebration – it wasn't a two-some though, as we brought the girls along.


We had a small cupcake for dessert, and Yiu Yiu had fun making birthday wishes and blowing the candle – she made us lit the candle over and over again.



On the actual day, we had dim sum lunch with mum and my siblings, followed by birthday song and another round of cake cutting at home. I got this French vanilla mille crepe at 75% discount, but the children didn't like it that much.


After that, Yiu Yiu drew her present for me.


It's been a while since I celebrated my birthday on such scale - so thanks dear, for making the effort.