My mum will be so darned proud (NOT!)

My mum brought over a load of bird's nest from Singapore when they came over earlier this month, and when they were here, she taught me the steps to cook the bird's nest using the slow cooker we have.

Every week, when she calls, she will remind me to cook the remaining bird's nest for myself and Wayne, and last night I did it -- or at least I tried.

I followed all the steps to the letter - soak with boiling water twice for 1.5 hours each time, adding it to the slow cooker and putting 1.5 cups of water, with a spoonful of rock sugar. We had then put the slow cooker on high, and it automatically jumped to low after 30 minutes.

Last night, I did the same thing, but the only thing different I did was to add the rock sugar when the slow cooker was just turned on at 10:30 pm (as opposed to adding it the next morning after the bird's nest was cooked).

Then I happily went to sleep, and when I woke up to nurse Rosabelle at 2:00 am, I thought she had pooed as I smelt something strong, but strangely sweet. I smelt her butt, it was clear. I even went out to the kitchen to check if the fridge door was closed tight as I had bought strong-smelling mangoes in the day. Nope, the fridge door was closed shut.

So I went back to sleep, and when I nursed Rosabelle again at 6:30 am, the sweet, and burnt smell was overpowering, and it then dawned upon me. The bird's nest! After putting her down to sleep, I quickly checked the slow cooker - it was still on high! It did not automatically switch to low after 30 minutes! And when I lifted the lid, I was greeted with the sight of burnt rock sugar and a bird's mess (not nest), and a strong burning smell! All I could do was to add water to the pot and soak it - the poor nanny has been trying to scrub away the burnt sugar to no avail for the whole day (and we've left it to soak in water with white vinegar overnight now).

Needless to say, Wayne and I did not get to drink any bird's nest today, and our whole family almost suffered from air poisoning from the all-night burning. As Wayne said, I'm really so NOT cut out for the kitchen - my place belongs in the boardroom. Burning bird's nest - sheesh, I don't think I will meet anybody like me in a long while... -_-

我是中国人 (I am Chinese)

That's it - our daughter has a Beijing vaccination booklet. She had always been using the one from KKH in Singapore, eversince she was born, and on the previous two trips to Amcare in Beijing, they just updated the booklet from Singapore. But today, after we had bad encounters with the lousy, over-priced senior doctors from Amcare, we paid a third of the price for a younger, and more responsive, and dedicated doctor today, who recommended that we start a Beijing vaccination booklet for her. So there you have it - the ugly-looking, green book at the bottom of the picture, compared to the more joyful-looking KKH one on the top.
Rosabelle was having a runny nose at times since yesterday morning, but it should likely be because of the aircon/fan, so we weren't too worried when the doctor asked that she delay her MR (measles and rubella) jab today in case it turned into a full-fledged cold. We went ahead with getting her vaccinated, in line with the schedule for China (in Singapore, kids get MMR at 15 months). Only thing was they only have locally-produced vaccination for 8 months, not the GSK ones they administer for 18 months here. Oh well, we got it free anyway, needing to pay only for consultation and the equipment.

Strangely enough, Rosabelle did not even cry, or so much as let out a whimper when they injected the vaccine - what a brave girl! She's now 9kg, and measures about 72cm (I say about because her head wasn't touching the end of the bed she was lying upon).

So this is her happy when waiting for the mandatory 15-minute observation period to be over. She was sitting happily on my lap eating her crackers, and the nurses remarked how dainty she was, holding the biscuit with both hands and taking only one small bite at a time, haha!

The next jab at 9 months will be the second dose of meningococcal meningitis (what a mouthful!), but the side effects of today's dose are more severe. The doctor recommended loads of TLC as the effects, if any (low-grade fever and occasional spots), will surface only after 6-10 days, and we need to feed her more water than usual as well, and to be sure not to introduce any other new foods over this period of time. Hmmm... we'll be sure to load up on the love, and give in to (most) of her whims and fancies then! (Not that we don't already do that now...)

A star-studded night

On our usual date night on Friday, Wayne and I went to Sanlitun Village for dinner (it seems to be our de facto place to go when we can't think of anywhere else!), and we wanted to catch Transformers 2 (but gave up after we saw the long queue for the tickets). We saw Christie Chung on our way, and she looks more petite/shorter than she does on screen - have always liked her as I think she has lots of charisma and has a good body, heh!

We tried Let's Burger for dinner, and will definitely head there again regularly! Wayne and I like burgers, and this is a good place to satiate our burger cravings - we had the black pepper steak burger, and also shared their chili fries (the thick, thick kind...ooohh), and a serving of their grilled chicken salad. The banana-lychee smoothie I had was also very yummy!

Whilst there, we saw Guo Jing Jing, China's Olympics diving champion, but she was very low-key with a cap pulled over her face. Very shortly after, who should come to take her seats but our ex-colleagues from Weber Shandwick, a bunch of ladies from the technology team.

After our dinner, whilst walking around, I heard someone calling out to me, and it was yet another ex-colleague, my team member Gloria, with her boyfriend.

Told you it was a star-studded night!

My dancing Tweety

Of late, other than imitating my nail-cutting action every now and then, Rosabelle loves to stand on my hips to dance - she would half-close her eyes, lean her head back and flop her neck/shoulders and bounce up and down when I sing/dance with her. It's no wonder I am having blue-black marks on my hip/stomach and thigh areas, from her standing pointy-toed on them - even the grandmothers in the yard remarked that she has a good sense of rhythm from being able to jig in tandem with me.
Luckily she's taking solid foods well to keep up with her activity levels - just tonight, she tried green bean for the first time when the nanny made green bean porridge for her, coupled with a soup of black fungus, cucumber, carrot, and chicken+broccoli meatballs. She can chew pretty well now, having fun with the springy meatballs (we cut it up of course).

However, I discovered tonight the nanny has been adding soya sauce (though only a drop) to all her chicken and fish foods, though I had explicitly instructed her not to. She'd wanted to add soya sauce and fragrant oil to her steamed egg before, saying no babies would take steamed egg without flavoring, and Rosabelle proved her wrong. Henceforth, I told her to add only a drop of soya sauce only for fish or chicken liver - foods with strong odours - but she could have gotten me wrong. Sigh, she has Rosabelle's interests at heart by wanting to make her eat more and appeal to her tastebuds, but I've already told her firmly that I'd rather let her enjoy the natural taste of foods, and use flavoring only as a last resort (with the exception of walnut oil). Made me quite upset, especially after we discovered this afternoon she has been using only one to two drops of softener for Rosabelle's clothes, thinking that we will tell her off for using too much. The quantity is way too little - it thus explains why some of her saliva cloths are not as soft as they used to be. A case of adding too much when it's not needed (soya sauce), and too little when it's needed (softener)!

Well, on to less microscopic things and on to bigger picture, something that Rosabelle has a good grasp of. Wayne has been playing a fair bit of basketball lately and came home in clothes soaking wet from his sweat, so he hung them to air in the bathroom before putting them in the laundry basket. When the nanny was bathing Rosabelle, she stood up suddenly and went 'Papa, papa...', whilst looking upwards. It was quite some time before the nanny realised and asked her 'Oh, so those are Daddy's clothes huh?', and Rosabelle then gave her a knowing smile. So sweet, she can identify Daddy's clothes, and though Wayne is not home much in the day time on weekdays when he goes off to work, she always has a ready 'Papa' and smile for him when he is back. Whenever I bring her back after her stroll, I will call 'Ayi! Ayi!' at the corridor, and today, she helped me by calling 'Papa! Papa!', as if willing Wayne to open the door to greet her.

She also does a good imitation of my Tweety lips these days - a new skill she has mastered in the past few days, and has been repeating a lot of, even when eating or drinking. See the pictures and the video to see what I mean - it's hilarious!

To market, to market...

Well, more like supermarket, that is. The babies in the yard are always drinking green bean soup from the bottle, to fight the summer heatiness, and yesterday, the supermarket within my apartments was having half-price sale of green bean - no wonder I saw people buying sacks, and when I went there to see, the whole green bean container was already empty. (Today's offer is for cucumber - yes, that's how housewifey I have become - arrghh!)

Anyway, I was paying attention to green beans as the nanny said I could buy some for Rosabelle to eat - we always like to let Rosabelle try new, nutritious foods, like today, when the nanny added white fungus my mum brought over from Singapore into her soup. And though she had previously disliked the taste of papaya, when we let her try the fruit again yesterday, she loved it! So, I believe in letting her try things that she had previously disliked after a period of time - we might have gotten her when she was in a foul mood.

Today, Wayne had a day off and we brought Rosabelle out for a quick trip to a shopping centre, Solana (as it was too hot/humid outdoors), and this is her guarding her packet of organic green beans (about 7 times the price of the on-sale green beans from the supermarket within my apartments). Oh well, I figured she can't eat much every time, so this small lot should go a long way...the things we splurge on these days...

The screaming wrestler

Today, Rosabelle was in an exceptionally talkative mood, screaming and warbling quite a fair bit both inside and outside the house, more so when she saw the other (older) kids playing and chasing each other around. She will flag both her arms and legs up and down, and even snort/grunt at times from the excitement, it's tiring to hold onto and carry her man!
But at times, when she's in a sticky mood, she will go 'M..mu...' (her way of calling me) in a whiney way, and then go all coy when I give her a 'Yes, what do you want this time?'.

Like when we changed her diapers and wanted to wear her pyjamas just now, she wasn't yet sleepy, so we decided to not put on her shirt, as it was too warm in the house (we switch on the living room aircon and open ours and the nanny's rooms for cool comfort at night these days when we sleep). So she looks like a junior turkish wrestling athelete here, biting her sweat towel angrily to scare off the competition.

And she decided that she likes the cool feel of the wooden floor (we've only ever let her sit on the bed, sofa, and her playmat), even refusing to get up when I wanted to carry her up.

So much for trying to look intimidating!

Fighting the sleep demon

She eyes the chunk before her warily.
Then realises it's her favourite apple, though she does not really like taking its juice nowadays, preferring to eat the whole fruit herself instead.

So Mummy got nanny to cut a slice for her to chew pieces off herself.

Mummy had to watch her as she was eating and wanting to play at the same time, and gagged on an over-big piece and almost choked till she teared (scared me!).

Well, it wasn't that bad after all, as she managed to eat half a piece by herself. Slower than drinking juices, but at least she can proudly say she fed herself!

She loves to feed herself these days, and for the past two days, when I was eating my lunch, she was squirming and making noise whilst eating her lunch, so I had no choice but to placate her by giving her a few grains of rice on her spoon, which she happily mashed between her fingers and tried to put into her mouth. Today, she even fed herself the rice three times using the spoon!

Thinking she'd be sick of the same old foods, the nanny woke up early this morning to prepare egg porridge (instead of the usual steamed egg) for her breakfast, but her efforts went to waste as Rosabelle did not take to the porridge, but instead eagerly slurped up the steamed egg the nanny had no choice but to make for her after. Looks like she's a fan of Ayi's steamed egg - a classic case of don't fix it if it ain't broke!

For lunch as well, seeing that she finished her steamed egg close to 11:30am, we decided to prepare something light/different, putting cut carrots, apple, peach, and honeydew into her cereal, and she almost managed to finish all. I say 'almost' because she took an hour to finish (the nanny gives her a time limit of 30 minutes, reminding her of the impending deadline if she slackens/gets distracted, and will clean her up when time's up), and left behind chunks of the fruit. The nanny did not cook the carrot, instead adding boiled water to the whole mixture, so I told her it's too hard for Rosabelle to swallow/chew, even though she had cut the carrot into fine bits - just am not comfortable with giving her not totally cooked vegetables.

Dinner time was a huge success as compared to breakfast and lunch. Rosabelle has been waking up and sleeping early these days, which is a good thing, and takes two naps a day, once after breakfast/before lunch, and another in the afternoon. However, for whatever reason (maybe it's too hot - sweltering furnace-like heat in Beijing these days), she did not sleep the second nap, so we brought her downstairs, and were hoping that she would not be sleepy during dinner.

When we came upstairs, seeing that she was still not in the mood to sleep, I decided to bathe her, and got the nanny to prepare her dinner, so that she would not start crying/looking for me when the nanny bathed/clothed her - whole idea was to keep her happy and in the mood to eat.

We succeeded with this strategy and the nanny whipped up a feast for her in record time - main course of noodles/spinach/vegetables/tomatoes, side dish of chicken/onion (she tried onion for the first time today), and a soup of black fungus/cucumber/potato/tofu (she also tried cucumber for the first time today). Her food is even more healthy and well-balanced than ours!Amazingly, she managed to finish up all the food, save for about four teaspoonfuls of the ingredients in the soup, which the nanny decided to not feed her anymore, for fear of her over-eating. She took longer than usual to finish, since it was a full-course dinner (and interrupted by her pooing mid-way), and Wayne/I had to entertain her at times as her eyes were closing and she was totally so going to fall asleep at times with her head on the table!

Am sure the nice taste of the food kept her awake and non-grouchy, phew... The pressure's now on the poor nanny to make every meal as appealing as this one now, but it sure is satisfying to see our girl taking well to new foods and new tastes!

Self-made bowling ball

That's our girl these days, refusing to take her fruit juices, but would instead prefer to take the whole fruit and chew/hold/bite. The nanny prepared honeydew juice for her this evening, but she did not take a single drop, until I gave her the whole fruit to hold, and she pierced a hole in the fruit and wanted to chew at it. I asked the nanny to put the pureed bits onto the honeydew itself and I held it for her so she could eat the bits off the fruit. Gee.

She does have good chewing skills these days, like when the nanny let her try black fungus for the first time yesterday to include in her noodles with brinjal, potato, and vegetables (with a side dish of snow fish with tofu) - how yummy! The black fungus was rather springy (I tried a little after), and she seemed to enjoy the texture. Well, looks like we have to give her more chewy/finger foods these days!

Speaking of foods, we encountered a most evil thing this morning when playing with the other kids in the yard downstairs. We suddenly heard a ear-shattering 'PNNNNG!!!' sound, and turned to see that someone had sent a watermelon crashing down from upstairs. The other grandmothers said it was not the first time this killer litter idiot was at work - he/she had thrown pumpkins and hangers down before, most likely because he/she did not like the sound of happy children playing downstairs and wanted to cause harm and/or scare the poor kids. My goodness, how sickening can such people get?! Anyway, the nanny and I have made a mental note to stay away from the sides of the buildings henceforth. What a spasticated moron he/she is!

I have nothing against people who do not like kids, but think those who want to deliberately cause harm to such innocent children are sick to the core. Sheesh!

My amazing copycat

Rosabelle turned 8 months old today, and she did the cutest thing ever. I was cutting my feet and finger nails behind the sofa, and she was trying hard to look at me over the nanny's shoulder when they were both seated on the playmat in front of the sofa, so the nanny carried her up.

After observing me for some time, she raised her left hand and made two fingers point out, and before we knew it, she was using her other hand to mimick my action of cutting my nails. The nanny and I burst out laughing and could not believe it, asking her to repeat the action of 'Mummy cutting nails', and she did it again. So hilarious - am so looking forward to fun times ahead if this is the mark of cute imitation skills of an 8-month-old!
As Rosabelle has been waking up early enough over the past few days, we have been spending alot of time outdoors with her friends within the yard, and it has been fun times as she enjoys watching the older children run around and shrieks with delight when I carry her to chase them. The guardians all also adore her for her friendliness and ready,dimpled smile, but she has been sticky to me and seldom allows others to carry her. The children will also share their toys, many of them bringing their toy cars/bikes down, and today, Rosabelle got 'bullied', haha!

She was happily riding astride one of the toy cars, with the nanny holding her, and me pushing the car, when an older girl came along and wanted to ride it, so she pushed Rosabelle's head to get her to come off, but ever so lightly. Rosabelle was too engrossed with the buttons on the steering wheel to know she was being bullied, and we had to quickly push the car away to avoid a confrontation. Well, I can't protect my girl forever, but luckily the push on the head wasn't too hard, or I would have scolded the naughty girl!

Today, she saw a man carrying a laptop backpack similar to Wayne's, and from the back, she thought it was her Daddy and called 'Papa', to the nanny's surprise, and we laughed when we saw that she could have mistaken someone else for Wayne.

Her affection towards us is really very sweet, like when I went up earlier this evening, leaving her and the nanny downstairs, and pushed her stroller home first. A little girl came along and wanted to play with her stroller, helping me push it to my apartment lobby. I had barely settled in at home when the nanny carried Rosabelle home, saying that she had looked on heartbroken, with her arm raised, to wave bye-bye to me, and the nanny even called me thrice to turn back and look at Rosabelle. After that, she could not rest her mind to play with the other kids anymore, thinking that her mother had abandoned her to play with another girl. Awww.... so poor thing.

Or like when she cleverly and eagerly lifts up one leg for the nanny to wear her shorts for her when the latter says it's time to get dressed and look for me downstairs (I had gone for a heavenly body massage when she was taking her afternoon nap...nice).

She should know that Daddy and Mummy also love and treasure her greatly. Happy 8 months, dearest daughter!

Our angel

The nanny has a favourite song for Rosabelle, called <<春天在哪里>> (Where is the Spring?). One of the mummies in the park sang it for Rosabelle a month back, and the nanny has been singing it to her eversince, especially when she is about to sleep. However, the nanny only knows one verse of the song, and will 'lalalala' through the rest of the lyrics (think broken record mode). So Wayne decided to download and print out the lyrics so that Rosabelle (and we) can listen to more than just repeated 'lalala's.

On Sunday, Wayne played the song from the laptop and Rosabelle grabbed onto the dining chair and bent her legs to dance, looking at the nanny for inspiration as she did her little jig.

She now has pretty good imitation skills, wanting to move her tongue when she saw me fold my tongue into a U-shape, and is able to mouth 'Baba' and 'Mama' very clearly, surprising the grandmothers in the yard area as she can enunciate quite well. Sometimes she even whispers the words, as in the past, when she woke at night, the nanny will mouth the words to her softly so as not to wake us up, so Rosabelle has also learnt to speak softly at times.
Just yesterday, she was playing with the activity station on her new Fisher Price walker to wagon toy she got from Zhu Li's house, and she actually said 'car'. The nanny did not understand and thought she was repeating the sound that was made when she hit the block on the floor (a 'kah!' sound). I told her it's an English word, and Rosabelle could have seen the wheels on the walker and thought it was a car. Haha!

She also knows how to turn light switches on and off, beaming with delight when she successfully switches on the walk-in wardrobe room light and looking up at the light excitedly.

Just when I think our daughter is a genius, she amazingly peed crystals yesterday! Or so I thought, having read an entry on Xiaxue's blog about her dog peeing crystals (or so she thought as well), a blog I follow regularly for her funny ramblings. I was changing Rosabelle's diapers yesterday and I saw transparent, speckly spots at the top of her crotch - I quickly called the nanny and thought she could be peeing crystals, or worse, salt! I was almost immediately reassured when the nanny told me the diaper was over-full and thus leaked some of the absorbent chemicals. Gee, just when I thought our daughter's an angel... oh well.

Sweet tooth

Die, my daughter's going to get a sweet tooth - she inadvertently had her first taste of processed sugars today when one of the over-enthusiastic grandmas in the yard popped a crust of fruit loop into her mouth before I could stop her. And before I knew it, before I could finish my sentence of 'No, don't give her another one, she's going home for lunch!', she had already stuffed a second crust into Rosabelle's mouth. When she got home, Rosabelle was smacking her lips/gums, and we quickly fed her some water. I smelt her mouth and it was the sickening taste of too much sugar - poor thing. The nanny and I have agreed that whenever either of us is not around, we will vehemently protest and not let other people feed her stuff, giving the excuse that 'Mummy/Nanny does not allow Rosabelle to snack'.

Gee. All my efforts/expenses in buying expensive/non-sweetened biscuits gone to waste just like that...

Still on the subject of sweet stuff, Vanessa mentioned on Saturday that Rachel loves eating mangoes, so yesterday, we let Rosabelle try some at night and she greedily slurped up at least 6 teaspoonfuls - the mango was really very fragrant and sweet, but we made sure to give her loads of water after as mango, though chokeful of Vitamin C, is rather heaty (and it doesn't help that she has been giving a constipated look, though no crying, during meal times, but are mostly false alarms with no poo - sigh, we still have yet to get her to poo regularly).

On to good things, the nanny recommended that we get her some walnut oil to add to her foods, supposedly very good for babies and their brain development. So, instead of adding fragrant oil or children's soya sauce to remove the smells in chicken liver or fish, the nanny will instead add walnut oil for taste and goodness. I've asked the nanny to as much as possible, let Rosabelle enjoy the natural tastes of foods, e.g. she does not have to add any seasoning to her steamed egg and still enjoys it. Even for the fish and chicken liver, Rosabelle also does not protest at the smells, so if it comes to a time when she protests and does not like it, we can then add some walnut oil. Walnut oil is even supposed to help those with eczema, so I should seriously consider including it in my diet.

We got a bottle from the baby mart, costing us RMB148 (about SGD30) for a 250ml bottle - at least I can be reassured she is injesting good oils, if she ever needs to!

I'm glad we have a nanny who can make a variety of foods for Rosabelle to whet her appetite - yesterday, she boiled a slice of white bread, making bread porridge with chicken and broccoli, marking a change from the usual cereal/porridge/noodles, and Rosabelle liked it. Good to introduce her to a variety of foods and different ways they are being made!

Behind the scenes

When our friend was taking our family photos the other day, he also captured some candid camera shots that I found funny.

Rosabelle wasn't too sitting too stably on the soft leather sofa, and the nanny was worried, standing beside her and catching her when she toppled over.

Though it did not help for this particular time when our friend captured this series of successive poses showing her falling over, legs in the air.
And that's our girl unabashedly showing off her Chanel-like belly button and diapers (her umbilical hernia has thankfully subsided greatly).

With a warm hug from Mummy to reward dear Rosabelle for being such a sport and posing so well.

It was a headache with the group shots, with each, especially the children doing their own thing.

And Simon not caring if the shutter was clicking - he just yawned whenever he felt like it.

And there he goes again...

Or he makes funny faces at the camera...
Or even simply looking bored (see how poor Marianne is gamely keeping up her pose and smile - all wasted...) So it was no wonder Marianne started having a serious pout and losing her sweet smile, from having worn a smile for way too long in the family photos. She kept smiling throughout even when they were adjusting the lighting etc, not pausing to rest, thus over-straining and becoming grouchy that it was taking too long, and thus was tiring for her.

And that's us trying to pacify/bribe her with treat of her favourite chocolates (M&Ms) if she gave a smile.

She was placated and loosened up, pulling her nose for a pose.

We always forgot that we had eyesores of accidental 'props' around, like Rosabelle's activity station, that was captured in most of the shots, and you can even see Wayne's and my bedroom slippers in this set of poses!
In spite of the many pictures that did not make it, it was fun though, and I wouldn't mind doing it all over again!

Hand busy, feet messy

That's the literal translation of a Chinese saying 手忙脚乱 - that's what Wayne and I (well, mainly me) were today when our nanny went on our weekly day-off. She did not get a day off for the last week as my family was here and I needed a helping hand to be at home base and prepare Rosabelle's foods whenever we were outside rushing home, and to look after her when we went out for dinner. So, the poor lady had her well-deserved off day today, and left me to do the cooking for Rosabelle.

She'd actually cut all the ingredients for me last night, and even left a note with brief instructions on how/what to cook for lunch, and I'd also verbally gone through with her. However, it's been a fortnight since I last prepared Rosabelle's meal, so I even forgot how to boil the egg (putting the egg in only after the water boiled, resulting in mushrooming eggs that could not be used, and then taking the egg out too early, resulting in undercooked egg). After the third attempt, I gave up (Wayne and I each had an egg for breakfast, and could not finish the third one, throwing it away), and Rosabelle was already making noise from the hunger/wait. She'd woken up at 9:30am today, and I spent one hour making a simple brunch of cereal with chicken and carrot/broccoli. I even called the nanny to confirm if I needed the water to boil before or after adding the chicken for the first time to get rid of the smell - ARRRGHHH! I am so not cut out for the kitchen man!

Anyway, thank goodness Rosabelle enjoyed her brunch nonetheless, and we headed out for a late lunch with the Choons. After the past two weeks of various outings with my family, I think Rosabelle enjoys the experiences, even though it makes her tired at times, so I will try to bring her out at least twice a week, apart from the walks in the park, and even took her on a new walking route the day before, making her and the nanny run errands with me on visits to the bank, bakery, and photography studio within our apartment, all in the name of opening her eyes to new things.

The Choons and us met at Element Fresh at Sanlitun Village, a restaurant I've been wanting to visit (but Wayne wasn't too keen on from looking at the menu), and Rachel was still asleep in her pram (Rosabelle had actually fallen asleep in the car seat but after 25 minutes of waiting, I decided to carry her up and woke her in the process - thank goodness she was still smiley and happy!).
Poor Rachel got disturbed and woke up grouchy, and by then, I'd fed Rosabelle a third of a banana (she chews from the banana herself these days, so we don't have to scrape/puree it), and she also finished a whole Wakodo rice cracker. After we finished our meal (I had steak sandwich whilst Wayne had cheese macoroni with chicken, which were both yummy), I fed Rosabelle her gripe water and we took photos. Rosabelle is very sweet and has learnt to share foods with other people, for example, clutching at the nanny's nose to get her to also eat the banana, or offering her mushy cracker (saliva included) to somebody else when she is happily munching on it. How nice of her!

Now, I had blogged before about Rosabelle's likeness to Wayne, especially the eyebrows, but alot of people have commented that she has my chin - doesn't this photo show it up clearly? *beam*

That's our happy girl doing a jig!

After that, we headed to Herbal Cafe for some desserts, and got a seat near the entrance, where the little ladies' idea of fun was to tug at each others' socks.

After we headed home, it was another mad rush to bring Rosabelle for her walk, then coming upstairs to bathe her. Seeing that she had not slept much in the afternoon, my plan was to nurse Rosabelle to sleep after her bath, but she strangely was still alert and happy after her bath, so I quickly got down to cooking her dinner of noodles with egg, brinjal, broccoli, and spinach. I did not botch up this time (especially on the egg), though Rosabelle was hungry by the time I was done and managed to finish up most of what I'd prepared - yaaay, what a sense of accomplishment!

Till now, the nanny does not dare let me prepare porridge for fear of me spoiling the pot, haha! But she does nice porridge for Rosabelle - letting her try red dates yesterday by putting some in her porridge, though not feeding it to her directly, just adding it for taste and nutrition.

Luckily our girl slept early enough before 9pm today, so that Wayne and I could take a breather. Phew! I am so not looking forward to the nanny's next rest day man!