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.

Bento post #124 – #130

Chocoloate flavoured mantou with heart-shaped cheesy cocktail sausage and rose apple.


Chicken nugget with potato wedges, and tomato ketchup in the blue tub, with two pieces of orange at the side.


Shell shaped pasta in Bolognese sause with guava slices in the shape of butterfly.


Pan fried chicken drummet with plain dinner roll and two pieces of apples. I had wanted to cut the skin in a checkered pattern but I abandoned the idea since I was running late.


Red bean pau with meatballs, and bear-shaped guava.


Fried rice with half a pear.


Cheesy sausage sushi with meatballs and slices of mandarin oranges.

Yan Yan – 8th month update

She's finally able to sit steadily unsupported.


But somehow, she doesn't quite like to be in this position. After a while, she'd resume the crawling position and transport herself everywhere, even though she may have something in her hands to keep her occupied. Another milestone is her ability to pull herself to standing position.


She amazes herself with the sound her hands make while clapping, though she doesn't quite understand it yet when we ask her to clap. On the other hand, she seems to know to open and close her fingers when we ask her to wave bye-bye. She's definitely weaned herself from thumb sucking as she's not been doing so for the last couple of weeks.

She hates being left alone, even for the shortest period. When hubby is not home and I have to tend to both girls myself, she can be playing happily on her own while I get Yiu Yiu ready for bed. But the moment we step into the bathroom to brush Yiu Yiu's teeth, she'd cry out and start crawling towards the bathroom. Another incidence that is sure to induce sreaming is when we remove things from her hands.

Several weeks back, she started wailing during our daily car journey home. As miraculously as it appeared, it had also miraculously stopped. Thank goodness for that - at least the daily drive home is not as stressful anymore.

We started her on porridge 2-3 weeks ago and she seems to love it more than cereal. I don’t blend her food anymore but simply mash the fish and mix them into the porridge. She can move her mouth as if chewing her food, though there's no signs of her teeth yet.

When she doesn't want to eat anymore…

…she can think of tonnes of excuses like:

My stomach is full already, I cannot put in anymore food.

My stomach has no more space already.

I burp already, meaning I'm full already.

And my absolute favourites...
My stomach grumbles already.

My stomach needs a rest.

Frozen bento stash

I haven’t been packing much bento for Yiu Yiu over the last few weeks coz my stash of frozen food for bentos had run out. Things have been really hectic at work too and so I hadn't the time to replenish the food stuff. Since school reopens on Monday after the week-long break, I took a day off yesterday to prepare these:

Clockwise from top left: Wanton, chicken nugget, drummet, meat balls

All this, plus some chicken stock for Yan Yan's porridge, took five back-breaking hours. I had wanted to prepare fish fingers too, but I was totally spent so that has to be a project for another day.

Beginning next week, Yiu Yiu's kindy will start at 8am instead of 8.30am, which means I have to get up by 6.15am to pack bento for her. She's better polish off her food, else all my hard work will be in vain.

Arts & crafts

Here are some of Yiu Yiu's arts & crafts projects, from kindy, arts class, and at home – some recent, while some were from as far back as last year. Mummy had forgotten to post them up :-)

Christmas tree and lion (using a recycled toilet tissue cardboard roll)

Chinese New Year card (front and inside) - words in pen were written by her teacher while she scribbled the rest with pencil

Fish, crab, birthday cake and some decorative card

Happy family - papa, mummy, Yiu Yiu and mei-mei. She doodled this while in the car

Can you guess what this picture is? According to her, it's a drawing of papa and mummy playing football, with the ball being kicked into the net. She drew this while at Yihao's house. Notice the difference of the people in this picture compared to the top one? She used a coin to trace out the head, and a ruler to draw out the body and limbs. I guess she must have observed Yihao doing the same.