M for Milk & Mummy

Of late, as the nanny has been busy with preparing her foods, she has been spending lesser time with Rosabelle on her walks (she also needs to take the chance to clean the house when we are out). As a result, these days, Rosabelle will at times scream if the nanny carries her away from me in the yard, and she will have to quickly distract her with the passing dog, a flying bird, or dancing with her. After we bought a porridge cooker this week, the poor woman should have more time and not worry about monitoring an over-boiled pot.

However, this is no indication of Rosabelle not being close to, and grateful for, the nanny's presence. Whenever we are not around, she's happy with the nanny, and will not look for Wayne or I, happily taking EBM from the bottle before going to sleep without so much as a cry. However, when I am around, she will cry whilst having her diaper and pyjamas changed, as she will be impatiently wanting for me to nurse her to sleep. So it's good, as well as necessary, for me to leave Rosabelle at times, to teach her independence and trust.

Just yesterday, after the nanny had bathed her, she carried her up to look in the bathroom mirror. The nanny was perspiring profusely from the steam in the bathroom, and told Rosabelle, 'See how much I am perspiring from bathing you?', and Rosabelle immediately put her cheek to the nanny's, as if to say 'Thank you, Ayi, I know it's hard work for you'. When the nanny proudly shared this incident with me this morning, she was beaming and elated that Rosabelle is such a sweet, loving and sensible child.

Today, when I was peeling and wanting to feed her grapes after her bath, she turned away and refused to eat, all the while looking at the nanny who was clearing her bath water. The nanny told me she must be waiting for the nanny to feed her and true enough, she finished her 10 grapes happily from the nanny's hand! Looks like our girl is very clear in who to go to for whatever purpose - milk is Mummy, and sleep/other foods is Ayi (with the latter being the back-up if the main person's missing), just like she does not mind me feeding her on Saturdays when the nanny's off.

Rosabelle is increasingly becoming more aware of, and craving other people's foods on our walks. I have to quickly carry her away if some grandmother offers her or other children food, as the nanny and I don't like her to snack, especially if it's something she has not tried before. There have been occasions when we had no choice but to give her a biscuit to hold to placate her screaming (and constant pointing at the food in question). Like today, a grandmother gave me her whole container of sweet grapes to bring home as Rosabelle enjoyed two in her presence, heh.

With her trying more kinds of foods (she had yellow capsicum yesterday and red cabbage today for the first time), it was getting harder for the nanny to keep track of and ensure she has a variety of foods over the week. So for my own sake as well, I did up a weekly food planner that includes the main categories of staples, meats, vegetables, fruits, other foods, as well as her meal/milk times so we could get an easy glance of what foods she's had for the week. This list is on our own dinner table now and is very useful for us both and making sure she's getting all foods off the list, and not OD-ing on certain types of food.
For sure, that's the anal planning streak in me coming into play here!