Finally, settled in

It’s been a fruitful, pulsating two weeks since we arrived in Beijing. Our new apartment is now looking more like a home and our biggest achievement to date is in finding our two domestic helpers todaay as I prepare to start full-time work next week. As before, all our worries have fortunately come to naught. God is good. All the time. He has opened doors ahead of us and allowed us to meet so many people within such a short time that will help make our lives a lot more fun and easier.

We celebrated Rachel’s second birthday with not much of pomp. It’s all my fault. I was too busy getting the house in order that I really didn’t have the energy to look into her birthday party.We were fortunate though to make one new friend who live just round the corner, Wendy Chow and 19mo angel Lily. The two girls had a playdate on Rachel’s birthday, and I baked some cupcakes to celebrate. That’s about it! Very low key, almost non-existent party. Didn’t even have balloons or any decor to mark her special day. Hopefully I’ll do better next year with her third birthday.

The girls have a great time playing with their angel wings! They look really adorable too.

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Below’s Wendy with Lily. What a lovely mother-and-daughter pair!

What we did do on Rachel’s birthday though, is to cook up a feast of chicken and spaghetti which she gobbled up with much oomph!

This chicken is marinated with maple syrup – very sweet yet savoury at the same time!

This pasta sauce is prepared with ricotta cheese, a hard find in China, but I did eventually locate it in April Gourmet at our apartment compound.

Then of course, the birthday “cake”. Tim bought it as I was too busy preparing her dinner feast. Unfortunately, he was stuck in a massive traffic jam (what’s new…) so only managed to drive to the nearest restaurant and got this lava cake, which Rachel didn’t eat much cos she’s just recovered from diarrhea. Tim also lost one of the two candles provided, so Rachel only had one candle on her cake.

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Finally, everyone had their turn to take pictures with the birthday girl, who gave her most adorable cheeky smile to Grandma.

Happy birthday girl!

What’s a girl to her Papa?

She turns two today, and I can’t find sleep,

Mixed feelings awash inside so deep,

From a mere babe to a cheery chirpy toddler,

Whence came this girl so pretty like her mother?

When she first arrived amidst snowy Beijing,

She was to our lives like birds in early spring.

The lengthy twelve hours of a mother in labour,

Had all seem so worthwhile when our bundle we savour.

But clouds came so quickly and blanketed our eyes,

And for 15 nights we feared of wrenching goodbyes.

So prayers and tears flowed during those days,

For a small girl fought bravely as alone she lays.

Till the clouds parted and God brought her back,

And we saw Him with her and nothing she had lacked.

And we cherished and loved her

Like a re-discovered treasure,

And she grew in our eyes

In joyous great measure.

From her first garbled word to her first ginger step,

To her first simple song and her first giggling clap,

Or when she mastered her spoon and fed herself and her doll,

Or to reaching the door handles that were yesterday too tall,

Or when she cry “pain pain” and furrows her brow deep,

Or when she tricks to “eat bread” to delay her sleep,

Or when buddies Pooh and Ah Bao who stayed at home,

While she flew in the clouds and in the sky she roam,

Oh, and swimming and jumping and climbing every stairs,

To her beautiful eyes like stars twinkling in pairs.

These are all diamonds that a Papa holds dear,

For nothing is more precious than this girl I see here.

Growing may bring in its path many tears,

But as we grow older everything is now clear,

That God holds our hands whenever we fear,

And we can feel lightened as our old hearts turn to cheer.

It is now daybreak as she reaches year two,

Today she will soon be going to school.

Papa’s not sure he’s ready to let go,

And he’s a little worried his hands turn cold.

But sure as the sun is shining in the sky,

He knows that this girl who is now a little shy,

Will soon find her feet in the “deep and wide” outside,

And he will look upon her with even greater pride.

I have no present on this day you turn two,

But pray for God’s blessings to be upon you.

That you can grow up under His guidance,

And that you can feel safe in His presence.

And if ever you need a hug and “somebody” to make you smile,

Or if you want to hear your song “Close your eyes, sleep a while”,

Even when one day you grow up and may not remember,

You are my dear girl, forever and ever…

Happy Birthday, my girl!

Why Why Why?!?!

It’s astonishing how fast children progress nowadays. I don’t remember popping the “WHY” question until I was much older, like maybe 4 or 5? Rachel started this week, and she’s only turning 2 in a few days. The poor girl, had a stomach flu and was suffering from abdominal cramps and loose stools for a few days, and when she got better, the questions came pouring too. “Why does the dog bark?”, “Why take medicine?”, “Why Mummy is going (to Beijing)?”, “Why is the sky (still) dark?” (asked when she woke up in the middle of the night thinking it should be daytime already). I too, have a lot of questions in my head, having been back in Singapore for a good 3 weeks already.

1) Why does Singapore give out sooooo many plastic bags?
My MIL comes back from the market with not less than 20 plastic bags every morning. One bag for the pork, one for the chicken drum stick, one for the chicken breast, one for the spinach, another for the carrots, yet a few more for the chee cheong fun, carrot cake, soy bean milk etc. Enough to last me for a month in China, where plastic bags are banned from all supermarkets. Consumers are now well trained to bring their own shopping bags, and I have quite a few for each type of food/grocery item. For the absent-minded consumer, you can purchase a plastic bag at 10-30 cents each. Most don’t. If the Chinese can choose to give up their plastics, why not Singaporeans?

2) Why are Singapore shopping malls’ air conditioners blasting so cold?
I got ill recently too, by walking in and out of Singapore’s blasting cold shopping malls. Outside on the street, its a blazing 32 deg c, and inside the malls, it felt like a blasting 16 deg c. It’s not unusual to see shoppers donned in scarves, jackets, sweaters even. I bet the offices are not any better. I remember having to wear a really thick sweater in my office when I used to work in Singapore years ago. It seems the “save energy, turn off the air con” message hasn’t quite got much attention here. In fact, we don’t even need to turn off the air-con, just set the thermostat at 25 deg c is enough to save half of our electricity consumption. If Singaporeans desperately need to feel winter in the midst of hot and humid summer weather, why not consider other forms of energy source, which leads me to the next question…

3) Why is solar energy not popular in Singapore?
Given Singapore’s all-year-round sunny weather, I’m surprised solar energy never quite took off here. In China, it’s not unusual to spot solar panels on the roof tops of houses, and the further we travel out of the city, the more solar panels we see, especially those etched atop a farmer’s humble abode dot the landscape as far as the eye can see. China is now the second largest manufacturer and user of solar panels. I recently had a conversation with Tim regarding solar energy (his company is investing in this area so they are doing some research), and he said Singapore government did not want to spend money on installing solar panels. The roof-tops of all HDBs are flat which presents a challenge when positioning solar panels, which need to be slanted at a certain degree. But to slant the plates, additional infrastructure is required, and guess what – the garmen says its too expensive, not worth it, let’s move on. Perhaps Singaporeans haven’t felt the impact of oil running out one day, but when the urgency finally dawns on us, I hope it won’t be too late to do anything yet.

4) Why are Singaporeans still using disposable wooden chopsticks?
These are banned now in China’s schools and many large food courts have banned disposable chopsticks too, for hygiene and environment reasons. Why not Singapore?

5) Why are cars still favoured over other modes of transport?
I realize Singaporeans are richer than they claim to be. The COEs may be rising, yet cars are still added to the roads every day/month. The bigger question though is, why is the car still seen as the main mode of transport for Singaporeans? In many countries (other than the US), most commute via subway or cycle to work, and its so common that no one blinks an eye. But for the daring cyclist here, they risk getting knocked down on the roads cos Singapore drivers are not known to give way to them, and speed way too fast for a safe ride, I think.

So there, my WHYs, which I guess, would probably not see any answers for some years to come. Maybe that’s why the dog is barking.

Proteeeeeeein punch!

I haven’t been cooking ever since we returned to Singapore, but today my MIL decided to bring Rachel out for her evening walk while I offered to prepare dinner. Took a peep in the fridge and uh oh…. nothing there but mushroom and tofu. Very basic ingredients but oh so delicious when combined. Not to mention the double protein we get! So, very simply, its just stir-fry the two together ala mala-tofu style sans chilli. Rachel had a potful of it and still screaming for more after dinner.

Mushroom and Tofu stir-fry

Ingredients
1 cup mushrooms (any kind)
Half box of tofu (the soft kind)
2 gloves of garlic

Seasoning: pinch of sea salt or dash of soy sauce

Directions:
1. Wash and chop up the mushroom into slices. Slice the tofu into small cubes. Chop up the garlic.
2. With medium fire, heat up a wok, add sufficient oil (we use canola or olive oil) to coat the base. Add the garlic when its heated up. Throw in the mushroom and add a little water if it is sticking to the wok. Simmer covered until you can smell the aroma of mushroom rising.
3. Add the cubed tofu and soy sauce or sea salt and stir until well blended.
4. Serve hot with rice/noodles. If eaten with noodles, this can be used as a base by adding more water and starch to thicken it until it becomes a sauce.

Enjoy a healthy meal!

Messy eaters and plate-catching parents

i can’t help but noticed in Singapore that everything is so orderly, clean and neat, it nearly freaked me out. We, on the other hand, have slide down to the other spectrum of messy eaters and plate-catching parents. Whatever works, I guess. Rachel’s been a good eater so far, and rather independent in feeding herself, most times. We’ve rarely had to scream at her to finish her food, though at times I’ve had heart-stopping moments when we had to catch that falling plate before it hits the floor. Getting a toddler to eat can sometimes be very trying on the parents’ patience. Here we share a few strategies that we’ve read about and tried on Rachel. Let us hear yours! Drop a comment and we’ll be on our way to a peaceful meal everyday.

Strategy 1: Keeping eating a novelty.
Most often I’ll be repeating certain food/dishes pretty often and that seem to bore Rachel a lot. So I try to rotate, experiment, and even serving food in different plates of different colours. We let Rachel participate in the process of preparing a meal, e.g. Rachel helps to beat the eggs before it goes into the frying pan for breakfast, or press the ON button on our tiny oven to bake the fish, or scooping porridge into her own plate before lunch. If she likes what she prepared, she’ll like eating it too.

Strategy 2: The more the merrier.
We have more than one plate for Rachel. In fact, she’s got a cupboard choked full of cutlery, and we usually give her two or three different ones to use at the same time. She likes scooping her food from one bowl to another, and while she’s engaged in that activity, I’ll sneak a spoonful of food into her open mouth. And we don’t limit her to kiddy cutlery. She’s eaten from all sorts of things before – crab shells, martini glasses, shot glass, tupperware, plastic da-bao boxes, orange juice squeezer, big/small/tall cups in all shapes and sizes etc. The more the merrier.

Strategy 3: Reverse psychology
We’ll be holding out her plate of food and tell her it’s not meant for her, its for Papa or Mummy (or Ah Bao, Pooh Bear etc.) her fave plush toys. We’ll be telling her to guard the food until we come back, and each time we turn around, she’ll sneak a mouth of food, we’ll give a goofy reaction to that, the goofier the better. In less than 15 min, she’ll finish her food, every single grain.

Strategy 4: Swim and sing
Rachel came home from an evening swim one day and refused her dinner. I had to tell her the fish wants to go swimming in her tummy and devised a song (along to the tune of “If you are happy and you know it clap your hands”) about the fish, and the chicken and the vege, all wanting to swim in Rachel’s tummy. It worked. Guess its all about knowing what attracts your kid and pair it with some bazaar song-and-dance entertainment during dinner.

Strategy 5: If all else fails, leave it.
They say, if you can’t change it, join it. That’s what I do sometimes. There are days when Rachel just doesn’t feel like eating, maybe its a tooth breaking through the gums, maybe its the weather, or whatever. In those occasions, I don’t force her to finish her food. If she’s hungry later, she’ll eat whatever you give her (even if its just biscuits). It’s not about giving in to a child or giving up your parental authority, but about respecting a toddler’s eating patterns. Every child will go through phrases of eating a lot, then eating very little, just like every adult. Our motto is, as long as she’s healthy, jumping and playing well, there’s no harm in skipping a meal or two once in a while.

Bon appetite!

No Mess, No Mass (of the brain). Paint Me Green

Rachel will be turning two by the end of October. We’ve booked a family photo shoot session with a photographer, Azlida Leo, whose magazine-style of photo-taking I really liked. Just can’t wait!!! I thought of doing away with Princessy dresses and over-the-top make-up (like what we had last year) and instead, will go for some nature, outdoor shooting location. Was browsing through some of the photos I took of Rachel recently, and found this set that’s really funny.

it was one of those rainy days in Shanghai and I decided to let her do some painting before dinner to keep her occupied while I prepared our food. She went into an overdrive and painted with much glee, not on the Breadtalk paper bag I offered, but on her hands, legs, the floor, furniture and our honeydew! Yes, honeydew. It was hilarious.

Look at the carnage. Fortunately these are easy wash-off paints or I’ll have some explaining to do to the landlord.

After messing in the living room, Rachel went to the kitchen and promptly sat on a honeydew on the ground, hands and legs all green. Did she imagine herself to be some goose laying a golden egg?

She’s probably very proud of her own body art work, inspecting the details and not allowing me to wash it off.

So there, that’s our Choon family hopeful body artist parading with pride. I betcha she’s going to be the next Picasso.

My girl may be messy at times, but that’s how children are. I’m thankful she’s the way she is, messy or not. It was a test of patience being a SAHM but also such a joyful time to be able to watch her grow and learn, and make a mess, everyday. She’ll be turning two in a few weeks time. My wish for her second year would be for her to be more messy. No mess, no mass (of the brain). That’s my new motto.